


By The Wings

by awanderer



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Original Character(s), Sam Wilson/OC - Freeform, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 13:33:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29983611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awanderer/pseuds/awanderer
Summary: For years, Charlie Parker and Sam Wilson have been inseparable. They've been partners in the Air Force, at Veterans Affairs, with the Avengers, and in life. Until Thanos ripped them apart.
Relationships: Sam Wilson/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER ONE**

**2022**

"Ya know it's not even eleven yet?"

"And half the world is dead. What other facts you got for me Rogers?" She took another long pull of her beer, staring out the window behind the bar, still not making eye contact with the Captain.

"He wouldn't want to see you like this."

"That's bullshit and you know it. If he was here, he'd be pouring the drinks." That got a slight chuckle from Steve.

"Maybe you should come to some of the meetings. It might help."

Charlie tensed up, memories from another war briefly flooding her brain before she stopped them with another gulp of alcohol. "I've been to enough of those but thanks Cap."

"Well what if you just talk to me, friend to friend." Steve reached for and cracked open one of the beers sitting on the bar. Charlie was pretty much a regular now and therefore ordered beers three at a time. And really, when half the world was just gone because of a literal snap of the fingers, who really cared much for rules?

She had gone through all of the phases of grief; she kind of stayed in the stage of drowning everything in alcohol and distancing herself from those she loved that were still here. It was just easier this way. She was over talking. She did enough of that when she finished with the Air Force. She did enough of that when she went to group meetings at the VA. She did and heard enough of that when she started working at the VA. She did enough of that after the events in New York, and D.C., and Sokovia and Berlin, and Wakanda. Talking about all the bad almost made it hard to hold onto all the good.

* * *

**_2011_ **

_Charlie walked slowly around base, enjoying the early morning quiet. Small tinkering noises here as others prepared for the day ahead. She sipped her coffee, if you could even call it that. She'd stop at the nearest diner and chug a full pot of coffee the moment she was stateside. The coffee may be sludge but it definitely didn't stop her from drinking three cups a day, minimum. It was routine at this point and kept her sane. It also guaranteed no one stole her Goonies mug._

_The Air Force may be family, but that family is not above stealing mugs from one another, especially one from the movie they all apparently watched as children. More importantly, the mug was given to her by her little brother before she was deployed and she'd be damned if anyone was gonna get their hands on it._

_Usually she was the only one wandering around the base, at least the only one up and having no specific job to do quite this early. She loved the early morning quiet most of any time of the day. It was dead silent but the only noises were the small ones. Almost like they were afraid to completely ruin how quiet it was because they knew how loud it could and eventually would be._

_Today was different._

_Because on this day, she wasn't alone in the early morning. At least for once she wasn't the only one crazy enough to wake up even earlier than they already do for shifts._

_Charlie didn't really mean to stare. It was just supposed to be a quick glance, maybe a friendly smile if there was unintentional, slightly awkward eye contact. But then she got distracted by his arms. And she really had no shame about it either. She couldn't see what book he was reading but she found herself deeply interested in the taste in literature this stranger has. He was sitting on the ground leaning against the hangar and Charlie was trying really hard not to think about how the early morning sun was shining perfectly on him and she was trying really hard to keep her eyes from not scanning him up and down._

_But that didn't work._

_Especially when she was bringing her eyes back up and saw that he noticed her. He had a slight smirk on his face but it wasn't one of those smirks that read 'I just saw you checking me out and yes I know I'm hot' kind of smirks. He lifted his book up, in a sort of salute-like form of acknowledgement._

_She smiled, tipped her mug to him, slowly pivoted and walked away towards her barracks to change. The image of the man's smile… and arms, burned in her brain._

* * *

_"So you must be Goonie."_

_Charlie looked up from her papers, to see a blonde, tanned and toned man in a grey US Air Force, not unlike half the guys walking around the base. But she was sure she had never formally met or at the very least seen this guy._

_"Excuse me?"_

_"Oh right! I'm Riley." he extended his hand as he sat on the bench across from her. The giant smile on his face left her even more confused because it was one that she recognized as a smile you give to someone you know, a former classmate, recent acquaintance, not necessarily one you get from someone you don't know. Charlie hesitantly shook the offered hand._

_"Look I'm very good with faces so I'm 99% sure we haven't met before and—" She interrupted herself remembering the comment made earlier. "Did you call me Goonie?"_

_He chuckled before answering, "Yeah that's your callsign." He said it like it was obvious, something that had been well established, as if it probably just slipped her mind. But didn't the person with the callsign have to be told what their callsign is? Or at least be told in a more grandeur way?_

_"Oh!" Not much stunned Charlie. She knew about callsigns, she just didn't expect to find out hers in a way that made it seem like she should already know what it was. "I wasn't aware."_

_Across the table, she could see that Riley was studying her and it made her feel a little out of it. Had she not been on an air force base she'd be looking around for a camera, clearly this was some practical joke right? She internally shook her head and focused back to trying to find out who the hell this guy was._

_"So who are you and how do you know my callsign?"_

_"I'm Riley."_

_Charlie couldn't have rolled her eyes harder._

_"Yes so I didn't exactly mean 'Who are you?' as in your name, I meant why are you over here, giving me a callsign, and acting like we know each other when I can't recall ever meeting you."_

_"So here's the thing." He leaned in like he was gonna tell her a secret, and right now she would be surprised if this was a big 'take over the world' kind of secret because it all just felt very surreal to begin with. "My buddy saw you the other day and literally won't shut up about you. He doesn't know your name, only what you look like, that you're also in the air force, obviously, and that you g\have a Goonies coffee mug. So I decided to be his wingman and it just so happened you are all those things and I saw the mug and well," He put his hands out as if presenting an award. "Goonie."_

_'It's better than getting the callsign Chunk.' Charlie thought as she squinted her eyes, trying to process all of those while thinking back to the multitude of men on base that could've seen her mug, which after seven weeks of being on base was literally all of them?_

_"Uh-huh. And does this friend have a name?"_

_"Sam Wilson."_

* * *

She realized she had spaced off a bit, just staring at her bottle while Steve patiently waited next to her.

Charlie gave a slight smile before whispering, "Ok." She turned to dig around in the pocket of her jacket laying on the barstool next to her. Pulling out a small box and slowly placing it on the glossy wood surface. "I found this when I went back to Wakanda three years ago. I couldn't even tell you why I went back there or what I was looking for but this was in the back of his drawer. I kind of blacked out on every intention I had before I found this."

Tears started to pool in her eyes and she took a shuddering breath. Steve just sat quietly, listening as his friend finally fell apart after the long five years she'd spent ignoring her feelings and bottling everything up. Shoving her all encompassing sadness that threatened to drown her, so far down that she could pretend she was fine.

"They're all just gone. Everyone we loved. Just gone. And we're just supposed to move on? That's bullshit." Charlie began to pick the label of her beer bottle. "You know I used to wonder what we did that we got to live. Why were we the ones that got to survive that snap? Why were we lucky? But now? Now I get it. We weren't the lucky ones. We're the ones being punished because we have to live without everyone we love. Maybe they only had to suffer for a few seconds. Maybe they only felt pain those couple of breaths. But I have felt nothing but a stabbing in my heart the last five years. An emptiness I can't shake.

"It's been five years and I still find myself forgetting. Sometimes I wake up thinking he's just gone on a mission. And then I remember and I fucking hate that feeling." She glared at the simple velvet box. As if it was the reason for all the turmoil she felt, and really it was to blame for some of it. "I was fine until I found that. Or at least I could pretend that I was. But that, that broke me. And all I can think about is how everything was ripped from me, from all of us. And I have never felt so completely helpless in my entire life. And I don't know how to cope with that.

"If I talk about it, then I'm acknowledging it and that just feels like I'm drowning and I can't be in that place. I just can't. So I have to not talk about it. And I have to sit here and have a beer or two at ten in the morning. The other option is more destructive and I can't do that to what's left of my family." Charlie had tears streaming down her face, she pushed her beer aside, resting her arms on the bar and her head on her arms, she faced Steeve for the first time. "We all need each other but I just can't talk about this. Not yet." She took a deep breath and quietly begged Steve to understand her even though she felt like she wasn't making much sense, "Please."

Steve could only nod as emotion clogged his throat, making him unable to reply verbally, he pulled her in for a hug. Trying to give comfort to the girl he thought of as a sister, his heart shattering with hers.

While she had already felt her heart ripped right out of her chest the day she watched him turn to dust right before her eyes. Finding the diamond ring made her watch her entire future and what could've been, disappear in an instant.

Had Thanos not destroyed everything she loved, Sam Wilson would've proposed.

Charlie would've said yes.

* * *

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first story, originally posted on fanfiction.net in 2019 and I'm just getting around to posting it on here!


	2. Chapter Two

**_2011_ **

_ After three weeks of sneaky glances, accidental eye contact, and shy salutes of mugs and nods, Charlie finally buckled and approached Sam. _

_ She found him sitting on the ground leaned up against the hanger, book in hand. With her coffee mug in hers, she sat next to him, chuckling softly as she startled him. _

_ "Whatcha reading?" As she asked, she leaned over to try and catch a glimpse of a page, very much in his personal space but that was just kind of a Parker trait. _

_ She got a glimpse of the creepy cat on the cover of a Stephen King novel. _

_ Trying to cover her distaste, she smiled. _

_ "Oh cool!" Taking a quick sip of her coffee, she extended her hand, "I'm Charlie, or apparently Goonie, but you probably knew that considering... uh... Riley...? Gave me that callsign based on what he heard from you. You're Sam, right?" _

_ Sam just stared at her for a few seconds, a soft smile on his face, one of admiration as she rambles a bit. He reached for her hand and smiled bigger at the warm squeeze, "Yeah. I'm Sam." _

_ "So why are you reading a horror novel? Would've expected something a little more up-beat." _

_ "Gets my mind off being here." _

_ "Ya know, I never understood why people say that." Sam quirked an eyebrow, not offended but interested in where she was going with this. "I mean, it's not like we were drafted; for the most part, we all chose to be here because we wanted to be here. I mean, I guess unless you felt like you had no other option, like going to college or even a job and military was the only thing you felt you could contribute to." She looked over at Sam and wanted to continue but the smile growing on his face stopped her. It was a smile like he had a secret she wasn't in on. _

_ "I meant like being here in general. In the world." _

_ "Oh." She internally cringed at her rambling rant in which she kind of offended this beautiful man who she just finally got the courage to actually speak words to. "Well I should probably go." _

_ Sam reached out before she could even make a move to get up, "You don't have to leave. I liked the rambling." _

_ Charlie was not a blusher. _

_ She wasn't. Of course she got embarrassed but she did not blush. Especially in front of men. _

_ But she was sure she felt her cheeks turn bright red and flash hot right then. _

* * *

_ "Hey, did you guys hear about the new program?" _

_ Over the last month, Charlie had come to learn a lot about Riley, mainly that he almost refused to have any normal greeting when starting a conversation, he just got straight to whatever point he wanted to get that she minded, she found it endearing but liked teasing him about it just as much. _

_ "Hello Riley, I'm doing great today, how are you?" She asked with a playful smirk. _

_ He just rolled his eyes in response, next to Charlie, Sam chuckled. _

_ As cheesy as it sounds, the three of them had become some version of the three musketeers, once Charlie introduced herself to Sam and they officially actually started speaking to each other and acknowledging each other, Riley took that as a sign that they were now a friend group and there any free time on base, you could usually find the three of them crowded around a table. _

_ "Yeah, okay, the new program? You guys heard of it?" _

_ Charlie shook her head and looked at Sam to see if he had any clue as to what Riley was talking about, "No but I'm sure you're about to tell us, you gossip." _

_ Anything that went on around base that wasn't strictly Air Force related, Riley somehow always managed to find it out. Not that Charlie was complaining, his gossip helped the slow times go by quicker. _

_ Riley leaned in towards Charlie and Sam, heavily implying that this was a very hush-hush gossip and not just typical shooting-the-shit gossip, so they leaned in as well. "Apparently, it's called the Falcon Project." He looked both ways as if someone was going to sneak up and listen in on what he was saying. _

_ There was a pause in which they all just stared at each other. _

_ "Okay, and…?" _

_ "And what?" _

_ "That's it? That's all you have? Falcon project?" Charlie looked at him confused. _

_ "Yeah, what more do you want?" _

_ "Um, details dude! Right now that could mean anything! For all we know that just means they're trying to plan how to watch the Atlanta Falcons when football starts up in a few weeks." _

_ Riley's jaw dropped, clearly offended that Charlie wasn't as interested in this small piece of gossip that had him so excited. "You're not impressed? You're not curious?" She shook her head. "Come on, Sam, tell her it sounds cool!" _

_ "Don't try and talk me into understanding your crumb of information! Like she said Falcon could be anything!" _

_ "I can't believe I come to you guys with top secret information and you can't even pretend to be just a tenth as excited as I am!" Riley truly looked like a kid who just overheard what his parents got him for Christmas. "Fine, I'm keeping my ears open for more information but when this becomes an official cool project and you two are dying to be a part of it, I'll remind you of this moment when you doubted Riley." Riley's dramatics were another thing Charlie had come to know and love about his personality. "I'll also only accept apologies over your doubt in alcohol so you better start saving bar money now, assholes." With that he got up and walked away. _

_ "You really think it's nothing?" She detected just a slight bit of curiosity in his voice, the kind that signaled just a little bit of hope in what Riley was talking about might come to be something. _

_ Charlie considered it, mostly because while she was teasing Riley, she did feel a little bad for busting his bubble so quickly, but Charlie was also a skeptic, she couldn't believe in something without more information. "I think he doesn't have enough information yet for me to believe it's anything more than nothing." _

* * *

**2019**

Charlie looked around the room, realizing she had drifted off into the past. That happened a lot in the quiet. And it was always quiet.

Which maybe is to be expected when the world gets cut in half.

Half the people, half the voices.

Half the cars, half the birds.

Half the music, half the life.

Half the crime.

Half the heroes.

There was just a lot of silence all the time it seemed.

She was sitting in what had been her Aunt May's apartment. It was mostly empty now. Charlie kept the furniture but after a year had passed, she couldn't stand looking at all the personal belongings strewn around anymore and packed the reminders of what her family used to be and what life would never be like again.

At first, she was determined to keep everything as it was. Keep Peter's room a mess, a spider suit half tucked away into the back of his closet, class schedules taped to the fridge.

But it was the photos that got to her eventually.

Photos of her and Peter as kids, with Aunt May and Uncle Ben, with her parents. Photos of her and Sam that May had forced Charlie to send her to be framed. It was the whole wall of photos of people that were no longer there.

That was what overwhelmed her enough into such a deep depression that Rodey broke the door down after no one had heard from her in weeks and her phone kept going straight to voicemail.

After sitting with her for a few hours, first just sitting and then making sure she had enough water and food for him to be satisfied, well into the early hours of the morning, he called Steve and Natasha. And the four of them together, packed away the deeply personal items.

At first she thought it was gonna hurt too much, irritate her over the small talk or the moving in more silence. But they helped her cope. They helped each other cope.

Or at least pretend to cope.

Which was maybe more than she had been doing.

* * *


	3. Chapter Three

**2018**

In the time between The Snap and packing up the apartment, Charlie found herself missing her brother intensely. Being an older sister, and a really great one at that, was something she took pride in. When The Snap happened, she'd had no idea where Peter was.

She stayed in Wakanda for a week afterwards, trying to get everything under control, or at least a semblance of control. Of course she had tried calling Peter and May, but the world was at a standstill, phone lines weren't working and she wasn't sure if she couldn't get through to her family, who were an ocean away, because everything was chaos or because they weren't there to answer the phone. God had she hoped it was the former.

Upon getting back to New York, she quickly found it was the latter.

More of her family, just gone.

She pieced together May had been in the middle of doing laundry during the snap, based on the baskets strewn in the hallway, sheets off the bed that ended up molding in the washing machine.

It took her much longer to figure out where Peter had been. She hoped he had at least been with his friends, she clutched onto that for a while considering they were gone too and so there was no way to confirm that thought. But then one day she was sitting on the floor, leaning against his bed, something she did often when she just wanted the comfort of familiarity, when she noticed his closet doors were wide open. That wasn't the unusual part, it was what wasn't in the closet that was unusual.

His suit was gone.

The spidey suit he got from Tony that was normally just tucked in the back of the closet was gone, only his old pajamaja suit was peeking out from the depths of t-shirts.

And that's when she decided she needed to talk to one Tony Stark because she had a feeling he would know where her brother had been when the world went dark.

* * *

On a cloudy, brisk afternoon, Charlie pulled up to a cabin in the woods just off a lake. It was beautiful and peaceful and she almost wondered why she hadn't moved to a place like this after everything too. It was probably the idea of moving away and losing the few people she still had left.

She saw him sitting at the end of the dock, his legs dangling off, she headed towards him and copied his position as she sat beside him.

He bumped her shoulder with his and nodded with a soft smile, "Charlotte."

"Tony." She glanced at him briefly, then looked out at the lake and then admired the trees.

They sat there for a while, maybe thirty minutes before Charlie could get to the point of her being there. Although, she had called ahead. Afterall, she needed the address and directions and didn't want to show up completely unannounced. They both knew why she was there, the kind of closure she wanted. But it was a lot more difficult to bring up than she intended.

Tony seemed to understand her need for time so they sat there in their silence, save for the wind that moved the tree branches around, the sounds from the birds flying over head, and the water lapping against the dock.

He understood the need to want to put off a topic that brought a sharp pain to their hearts.

"I saw the suit was gone." Charlie could feel the lump form in her throat almost immediately. "The suit wasn't in his room and so I just had this… hope? That maybe if the suit was gone, he was still safe, still alive. Just not here."

Tony just nodded because he didn't know what kind of response to give otherwise. He didn't know what it was like to lose someone and then have the hope that they weren't really lost, only to find out that you have to accept the loss.

"Was he scared?"

Charlie was sure she knew the answer and she was afraid of it. She was afraid of the words that were about to come out of Tony's mouth and the pained look that would be on his face. Because Charlie knew how much Tony cared for her brother and she couldn't even begin to imagine the pained look on his face and the complete obliteration of her heart that she would feel in the moment he faded away.

"No. No, it happened so fast, he felt nothing."

She knew he was lying. There was a hitch in his voice and his lip twitched a little. But she appreciated the lie, appreciated that Tony cared so much as to try and save her the pain. Even though she could see right through it.

So she played along. Biting her lip to hold back a sob as her eyes watered. She nodded and inhaled deeply as she turned back to the lake. She thought about just jumping in and letting the water swallow her, it had to be better than the pain that was doing so.

"Tony! Charlotte! Dinner's ready!" Pepper's voice carried from the front porch, breaking her thoughts.

Charlie looked behind her shoulder, catching a glimpse of Pepper's rather large bump as she turned, and smiled a bit.

"She's got her mom voice down."

* * *

"Hey, before you go, I want to show you something."

Charlie raised her eyebrows at Tony and followed him as he led the way to his garage/shed that was just a few yards from the house. He opened the door and flipped the light on and Charlie immediately smirked seeing all the metal projects strewn around the room, like a mini version of his workshop, what she imagined a start-up engineer's shed might look. She was sure Pepper knew Tony was still creating and building but let him have his small getaway.

"So before..." Tony gestured wildly with his hands, signalling to Charlie that he was talking about the awful terribleness a few months back. "Peter asked me to help him make something." Charlie's brows knitted together as she watched him walk around the table. "For you."

"Me? What could he possibly need your help with making something for me?" She crossed her arms, a little uncomfortable at the thought of a gift, she had trouble accepting things from other people, even her brother. "Unless it's a robot that's gonna dust my apartment, then I'm just gonna be mad you didn't tell me sooner." God did she hate dusting.

She saw Tony smirk and her comment surprised herself a bit at how she slipped into the banter that had become common before everything, rather easily, in the time that Tony had taken Peter under his wing so to speak, he had also become somewhat of an older brother to Charlie as well.

"I'll add it to your Christmas list," Tony quipped with a playful roll of his eyes and then his face grew a little more serious as he pulled out a holograph of drawings, scribbles, and plans. "It's a suit."

She stared back dumbly, her brain not comprehending, "A suit?"

"An Avengers suit." Tony nodded and gave a soft chuckle. "The kid thought you deserved a suit since you've 'been an Avenger longer' than he has."

In that moment, Charlie covered her mouth with her hand, a smile coming up on her face but a sob coming out of her mouth. She could picture exactly the look of determination on Peter's face as he approached Tony with the idea that if he had a superhero suit, his big sister deserved one too. Like when they were kids and he would run around the house with a cape made from a bath towel that Uncle Ben tied around his neck for him while insisting Charlie needed one too. 'She's the hero, I'm the sidekick, so she needs the cape more than me!' God did she miss her little brother and his big heart.

Looking at the rough sketches, Charlie noticed the suit was all black, touches of silver minimal. She smiled at the small inclusion of her air force pilot wings that looked like it was supposed to be a patch on her right arm. She chuckled quietly at the notation of pockets 'because it has to be a practical suit or she won't wear it' written off to the side.

"The plans were pretty much finished, just had to figure out the wings."

She had trouble looking away from the notes written in his sloppy teen boy handwriting, appreciating the image she conjured up in her brain of Peter furiously scribbling his notes down.

"Wings?"

"Well yeah." Tony said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You were a pilot in the Air Force, it would only make sense that your suit has wings so you could fly."

She was sure her heart stopped beating.

Her lungs definitely stopped filtering air.

Her brain emptied.

And she wanted to sob all at the same time.

She conjured up images of her and Sam flying next to each other on missions, images that would never have a chance of becoming reality.

* * *

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still trying to figure out how I want to put this story together, that's something normal authors say at the beginning of a third chapter of a story right? Mostly my idea for this story was going back and forth between the present (which would be in that five year gap in Endgame) and past (which right now is very pre-CA: TWS) without fully going through all the movies Charlie would be a part of (every movie Sam is in, Charlie would be in.) So essentially, each chapter is a vignette. Basically what I'm getting at is, the long gap between publishing chapters is me trying to figure out which piece of the MCU puzzle should be introduced where.


	4. Chapter Four

**_2011_ **

"What we are about to discuss is top secret and cannot, under any circumstances leave this room." Sergeant Harkins "You all are the best of the best in the air national guard and we will be picking two from this group to be part of a classified mission."

Charlie looked to her left at Riley, who had a 'told you so' look on his face and mouthed "Falcon" at her and Sam. Looking around the operations room, usually used for squad mission briefings, Charlie noted about 50 people from the 563rd Rescue Group were squeezed into the room. A mix of a few from each of the squadrons that were stationed at the base. Sam, Riley, and Charlie, pushed up against the wall, lined up shoulder to shoulder as they were one of the last few to shuffle into the room. 

They had been rounded up, in the middle of a friendly game of black jack between the three of them, by a senior ranking staff sergeant, told they were needed for a briefing and were told nothing more. No matter how many times Charlie asked. 

A photo popped up on the screen, they looked like two jet packs, something you'd see in comic books but never expect in real life. She wished she could tell Peter about what she was seeing. The next slide was a video, a man, who looked familiar but Charlie couldn't seem to place him, came in frame, "Exo-7 Falcon test 37."

Placing one of the packs on his back, he pushed a button and it took every ounce of her self control not to jump in surprise when the massive metal wings unfolded from the sides of the pack. While she had no idea what to expect from this meeting, that certainly hadn't even been on radar. She looked to her right, raising her eyebrows at Sam, who looked just as surprised yet confused as she felt.

And then the man flew into the sky and Charlie found herself leaning forward as if she would somehow get a better view, surely her eyes were deceiving her and she wasn't actually seeing a man fly with wings. 

She tried so hard to keep her jaw from dropping but she felt herself abundantly blinking as if her brain was trying to clear away a delusion she was convinced she was seeing.

"Exo-7 Falcon is experimental. We currently have two in existence and should we have successful deployments, we could soon have a full rescue group. For now, you all will be evaluated and we will assign two paratroopers to test pilot the final working prototype deemed usable by the Air Force." Harkins paused, looking around the room. "A few of you will still be part of the missions without wearing the wings, of course, but this will be a secret mission special ops group. So none of this information leaves this room. While this will include dangerous missions unrelated to your regular group's assignments, everyone outside of this room will be told that the selected team has been given a need to know assignment and no further information given.

"Decisions will be made in the coming weeks. Dismissed."

As the Sergeant walked out, it seemed as though everyone else was still trying to process what they had just seen and been told, no one moving for what felt like five minutes before the first pilot made the move to leave. 

Sam, Charlie, and Riley filed out, the three following each other to a secluded spot on base near the empty hangars. 

"Holy shit." Charlie breathed out.

"So when do I get to hear the 'You were right Riley. We're sorry we didn't believe you Riley. We never should've doubted your intelligence Riley!'" He smirked as he crossed his arms, looking at the two who doubted him just days ago.

Sam rolled his eyes, "We apologize for doubting your eavesdropping skills." His tone sounded less than apologetic.

"I'll accept that." Riley accepted with a nod, looked around to double check there wasn't anyone around that was trying to surpass his listening skills, "So who do you think will get picked?"

"It seems like we all have an equal chance but the question really is do you want to get picked?" Sam stared at the two standing in front of him. The trio hadn't voiced their thoughts out loud, but internally they were all intrigued by this opportunity. The chance to do some actual productive good thanks to secret missions.

Charlie scuffed the toe of her boot on the ground, trying to look nonchalant as she looked down almost in an attempt to not feel embarrassed, "Flying would be pretty cool." She knew they knew what she meant, she was a pilot after all, she got the thrill of being in the air all the time. 

But this kind of flying would be different, this would be her flying not her flying something else, no aircraft between her and the open sky. Isn't that what every kid dreamed of? If you could have any superpower what would it be? She'd always say the ability to fly. She was sure Riley said invisibility as a kid, no doubt.

She was started out of her thoughts as Riley all but screamed, "Cool? It'd be fucking amazing!" He threw his arms around Sam and Charlie in excitement, the smile threatening to break his face, it was so big. "Imagine the three of us, top secret missions, flying! With wings!"

His excitement was infectious and Charlie looked over to see Sam with a smile just as big. 

However, Charlie couldn't help but make the note in her head that Riley seemed to be forgetting there were three of them and only two sets of wings.

* * *

It was just about dark out now, the sun just setting behind the horizon, a haze of light turning the sky bright purple that darkened up to navy. Much like the early mornings, Charlie enjoyed this time of the day, at least on the non-mission days, for it's ambience. There were still pilots milling about, tinkering of planes being heard, guys making their way to the mess hall, laughing loudly. But it was a peaceful sort of noise, a quiet background murmur that was comforting as the lights outside around the base made their way on so they weren't thrown in complete darkness.

She sat near a bay door that was open but seemed to be empty, enjoying the warm breeze as she flipped through one of the biographies she got from her most recent package from Peter.

This one in particular was about Carol Danvers, the female pilot that ultimately inspired her to look into becoming one herself. Peter was always thoughtful with his packages, while Aunt May sent her baked goods and letters keeping her updated on everything in Queens, Peter often included books and magazine and newspaper articles he knew she'd find as a good escape from reality. Usually Carol Danvers or Captain America related, sometimes comics sometimes wrote letters of clips he heard on the news about them. They had a love of superheroes. This book was the latest of many Carol Danvers biographies that had been published recently and therefore one she wanted to savor as it claimed to have new information about the mystery surrounding her disappearance.

Charlie loved a good mystery and the story of Carol had always been one she found intriguing, like how some people couldn't get enough conspiracies and newspaper clippings about the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, she could never consume enough information about her Air Force pilot idol.

"Whatcha got there?" Charlie jumped a bit, startled by the smooth voice coming from her left, she had no idea Sam had made his way to her, she was so used to hearing clumsy footsteps in the Air Force issued boots, it made her wonder if Sam intentionally quieted them.

She closed the book shut, only a chapter in, and placed her hands over it. "Um just a book my brother sent me." She wasn't sure why she thought it would be embarrassing to be caught reading the book, maybe because she knew because the Air Force was still a male-dominated organization and she knew there were still plenty of men that didn't think she belonged here, let alone to be a pilot.

She knew Sam wasn't one of those men but it was just a habit.

"What book?" Sam sat down next to her, back against the wall, knees bent, elbows resting on top, mirroring her own position. He seemed genuinely interested so she untucked the book from her lap and showed him the cover, the title in bold letters across the top over an old photo of Carol walking to her plane, 'Captain by Liz Proctor.' She saw his eyes light up in excitement and with that Charlie felt her excitement spike as well. "I love Carol Danvers!" She extended the book further towards him and he eagerly grabbed it, flipping the cover open to read the inside jacket summary.

"She's my idol." Charlie said softly. "I think I've read everything about her. My brother knows how much I love her and the mystery surrounding her, he made sure to get on the waitlist for this book the moment it was announced. It's supposed to be like the most official telling of her story, the author got a ton of exclusive interviews and even managed to talk to Maria Rambeau and have her write the forward." She found herself talking faster and faster like she just couldn't get her mouth to keep up with the excitement in her brain. She felt encouraged to continue seeing Sam nod just as enthusiastically. "Her disappearance is just fascinating, like what happened to her? It's like Amelia Earhart but crazier because what if it involves the government, it is the Air Force, the 'it goes all the way to the top' aspect of it just makes it all the more compelling don't you think?"

"So which theory is your favorite?" By now they had both turned towards each other, creating their own little bubble. "Government? Alien abduction? Another bermuda triangle?"

"Alien abduction." Charlie replied quickly and confidently.

Sam was waiting for her to laugh at her own joke before realising that was her real answer, "Oh shit! You're serious?"

"Ok so hear me out, not exactly aliens but definitely an abduction of some super-natural kind?" She took a breath, her and Peter had talked through a lot of theories in their years."I don't think it's green things with antennas or like a flying bigfoot kind of supernatural. But more like super as in something with super powers."

Sam nodded slowly, "Like Iron Man?" He wasn't mocking her at all, he just wanted to grasp the angle she was taking this theory, genuinely intrigued. For the longest time he simply believed Danvers just crashed somewhere remote with no way to communicate, it had flaws but it was the only thing he could consider that was based in the most logic.

"More like Thor." A thoughtful look crossed Sam's face as he processed what she said. "I mean he's literally from a whole other world and just appeared. So who's to say Carol didn't just disappear to a new one? And is like, being brainwashed or held hostage?" Charlie said it slowly, almost like she still couldn't quite believe her own theory and sure brainwashing was a thing but she hated not having a 'why'— "I just refuse to believe this will be like Amelia Earheart and that we'll never know. I mean she was flying for the freaking Air Force, how did they just lose track of her and a government plane? How is it possible that their technology was less than or the same as the technology on Amelia's plane?"

"Honestly, it makes more sense than any of the other theories I've heard." Sam fiddled with the book still in his hands, picking at the cover just for something to do as he continued." No one else seems to care about the why and just accept that she's missing. You think the Air Force knows where she is?"

Charlie tried to contain her absolute thrill over having someone else to converse with about this theory. She just accepted that it would only ever have her little brother that she would trade, admittedly, outlandish conspiracy theories with, afterall he had a big imagination. Grateful for a serious conversation and not just an immediate dismissal that she was looking too much into this, she turned entirely toward him, legs criss crossed and leaning in.

"Before, I gave them the benefit of the doubt, that maybe they just didn't have the technology to find her. But with Tony Stark around? There's fucking no way!"

"Ok so it goes all the way to the top, but why? Why wouldn't the Air Force say anything? Try to find her? She was one of the greatest pilots they've ever had." He shook his head as he tried to will a reason to shake from his brain.

In reply, she gave a halfhearted shrug because she couldn't figure it out either, "Maybe they know where she is but don't know how to get to her? It's the one thing I can't seem to figure out, nothing truly makes sense, it all really sounds a conspiracy but she's out there." She got softer, "She has to be."

She wasn't truly why she was so adamant about it or why she desperately wanted to believe Danvers wasn't missing or even worse dead and gone. She knew whatever happened, it couldn't possibly be by choice, by now she's read so much about Carol that she felt she knew her well enough to know she wouldn't just go AWOL. In the back of her mind she thought maybe it was because it was a thought that occasionally creeped up when she was in the cockpit herself. 

Would she go missing? Just disappear? Would anyone find her? Would anyone try?

"Maybe this book has more answers." Sam tried to sound positive.

"Or more questions."

A short smile came across his face, showing that was more likely than his optimistic thinking. "Well, let me know what you find out." He handed the book back to her and then seemed conflicted. 

The conversation seemed to naturally end, mostly because they refused to address the slight awkwardness between them. The awkwardness that was really something more akin to uncertainty, there was an obvious attraction that felt mutual. Yet, neither acknowledged it outright just yet.

She took the book back, not really wanting to turn away from him, she appreciated his company. And his smile.

"Mind if I stay here while you read?" Sam asked quietly, almost shly, something she didn't necessarily associate with him.

"Sure." She answered just as softly, trying desperately not to blush.

He didn't even turn away as he said the next thing and she knew for sure the blush deepended to much to hide, "It's too nice of a night to go in just yet, the view is too good."

He smirked with his quickly grown confidence as he watched her smile grow, her eyes shining, She quickly looked down at her book, biting the bottom of her lip because she couldn't for the life of her get the smile that he gave off her face.

And she didn't really want to either.

* * *

**_2014_ **

It was a normal enough morning, they had the day off from going to the VA. They started off with a run, well Sam ran, Charlie preferred a leisure walk. Although there was a little part of her that was hoping just maybe Captain America would show up. She had been a little annoyed that Sam seemed to get all the interactions with him but yet he never showed up when Charlie was around.

She often teased Sam, telling him maybe he was just hallucinating the super hero they both looked up to.

After being challenged to a race, Charlie never backing down from a challenge even if she knew it was one she'd lose, the two headed home to change and move on with their day.

Pushing the door open and dropping the keys on the counter, Charlie moved to head up the stairs, getting out of her sweaty clothes. The D.C. heat making itself known as the sun rose higher into the sky on their walk back. "Don't drink from the carton!"

It was routine. Charlie would change clothes, Sam would start the coffee for her and then he'd grab some orange juice from the fridge, and like all men felt the need to do, would drink straight from the carton.

Not that Charlie truly minded, she didn't drink orange juice anyway, it just more or less became a habit.

"Less dishes!" She smirked as she heard Sam's reply yelled up the stairs. Walking into the closet, she traded her sweaty t-shirt and leggings for a clean replacement as she heard an urgent knock on their back door.

Even though they weren't expecting anyone, she knew Sam would still answer the door instead of just waiting for the person to walk away. Men.

She slowly made her way down the hall as she heard voices. Two voices in addition to Sam's, she thought she vaguely recognized but couldn't quite place.

"We have nowhere else to go." She knew that voice! But in her house? She shook her head at herself, there was no way.

"Everyone we know is trying to kill us."

"Not everyone…"

She decided to make herself known and went the rest of the way down the stairs, only to stop in her tracks, stunned to see Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff standing in her house. Her kitchen!

"Captain America," Charlie whispered in awe before shaking herself out of completely fangirling. "I mean, I'm Charlotte, Charlie actually. Parker. I'm Charlie Parker."

Charlie cleared her throat and refused to look in the direction of Sam, knowing he was in the process of containing his laughs. She took in their appearance, "Clothes, you guys probably want to change clothes, I'm gonna get those for you. And food. You guys eat right? I mean of course you do. I mean have you eaten today? You know what I'm gonna go get those clothes and then come back and make breakfast. So.. I'm gonna go do that." She turned to go up the stairs but turned back, as if to make sure Captain America and the Black Widow were really standing in her kitchen before sprinting back up the stairs.

She heard Sam speak up just before she got out of hearing range.

"Don't worry she's usually much cooler than that, she's just a big fan and also can't properly function without coffee."

"There are not one but two Avengers in our house right now, how are you not flipping your shit right now?"

Sam smirked as he crossed his arms and leaned against the counter, next to the stove where Charlie was waiting for a pan to heat up so she could make breakfast. Breakfast for two Avengers. "Because I'm a normal human."

Grabbing eggs and bacon from the fridge and setting them next to the stove, she moved to grab two more mugs from the cabinet just above the coffee maker and then remembered she should probably grab the cream from the fridge as well, just in case the duo upstairs didn't take their coffee black. She whipped her head back around to Sam.

"Bullshit." Charlie couldn't get the words out fast enough. "I was here that first morning you "raced" him remember? You looked like a little boy who met his hero."

"I did!"

"I thought Carol Danvers was your hero?"

"She is but Cap is more attainable, obviously." Charlie raised her eyebrows at Sam. "What?"

"Cap?"

"He's in our house hiding from assassins, I get to call him by his first name."

Charlie furrowed her brows and looked at him in confusion, "His first name is Steve."

"Well at least I can speak full sentences around him."

Charlie rolled her eyes because she really couldn't argue with that, her brain had practically melted to nothing when she walked into her kitchen with the only expectation of coffee.

"How do you think Captain America wants his eggs? Scrambled or sunny side up? And how many? Because he's huge and probably has super human digestion and so like is six even enough or is that the equivalent of one egg for us? Do you think the Black Widow eats toast? Because I think with a body like that, you probably avoid carbs," She was gesturing with her Goonies mug with every question, it was a wonder how the coffee sloshing around didn't end up in a puddle on the floor. "Although maybe she eats a lot of carbs because she works it all off with training."

At this point Charlie was just saying her thoughts out loud as Sam just stared at her, the look on his face full of love for this absolutely insane woman fangirling over two people, one of whom could most likely hear her with his super hearing. He could remind her of that but she had embarrassed herself enough this morning, she didn't need his help.

Even so, he couldn't help but chuckle as his heart soared even more as the excitement Charlie had grew.

"I have no idea what they eat but you cannot call them that to their faces."

"Relax I'm not going to, I just need to get it out of my system," Charlie cracked a few eggs into the sizzling pan. "Peter is gonna absolutely lose his mind when I tell him." Sam gave her a pointed look. "I don't mean I'm gonna tell him right this minute."

Sam raised an eyebrow, knowing these siblings were as close as any set of siblings could be, but especially when it came to idolizing the Avengers.

"I'm not!" Charlie said incredulously. She signed before continuing quietly, "I'll wait until his birthday like any good big sister would do."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did as much research into the air force, air national guard, and what group and squadrons are as well as which one Sam (and therefore Charlie and Riley) were in and tried to understand and include it in her to the best of my ability! Also I *think* I have an understanding of the MCU timeline Thor and Captain America was 2011, Captain America: The Winter Soldier was 2014, so my thinking is Sam and Charlie in the Air Force (specifically the scene talking about Carol) was between the first Thor movie and the first CA.
> 
> Let me know your thoughts!


	5. Chapter Five

_**2011** _

"So I heard they have it narrowed down to 15 so far, and we're in it!"

Since being told about the Falcon Project, Riley had lost all need for actual greetings. Often just choosing to walk up to them during meal time, slam his tray down and just start talking away. The first week, it took Sam and Charlie a little time to catch on to what he was talking about; a month into this, they learned everything that came out of his mouth would be Falcon related until teams were announced.

"How do you know this?" Charlie, always the skeptic, questioned.

"Heard it from Johns," Riley responded with a shrug before all but shoving his sloppy joe into his mouth. Sam threw napkins his way before he could make a mess of his uniform.

It made sense. Johns was the base gossiper, and somehow knew everything from everyone and it was always fact, never rumors.

"He's one of the ten, said everyone else who is out has already been told. And since we haven't been told we've been dismissed from the program," Riley paused to look directly at Charlie and then Sam, both who shook their heads. "Then we're finalists too."

Charlie sighed heavily, "You guys realize that if we do all make it on, only two of us will actually be flying, right?"

It was something Charlie hadn't been able to get out of her head from the last month and a half since the first meeting of being informed of the Falcon project. There were three of them and two sets of wings. While there was a part of her that wanted to say she didn't care if she got the wings because after all, she's a pilot, she knows what it's like to fly. She'd be lying if she said that wasn't enough. It wasn't enough to be enclosed in a cockpit, still having a barrier between her and the wide open air. It wasn't enough to be the human in a plane that was doing the actual flying, the place being attached to the wings, her just along for the ride.

But the Falcon wings got rid of the heavy machinery between her and the blue sky, she was the flier, not just the pilot telling it where to go. And she wanted that.

She saw Sam's eyebrows furrow at her before Riley spoke up, "Well, yeah, but we could all make the team and none of us get the wings at all." Somehow that made Charlie feel a little better, she thought. But also wouldn't she feel prouder if at least one of them got it than if none of them did? "All I care about is going on secret missions with my best buds!"

Riley had a way of picking out the simplicities of a situation and appreciating them. And Charlie had never appreciated that more than right now. She knew she had tendencies to be insecure and that insecurity would lead to jealousy and she really didn't want that emotion if one of her best friends had something once-in-a-lifetime happen to them.

So she decided then and there fate was going to take over and that wasn't gonna dampen her excitement over what happened. Cause while she was still nervous about if she would get wings or not, she sure as hell knew Sergeant Hawkins would be an absolute idiot to at least not have the three of them on this team.

* * *

Fate could fuck right off.

Well maybe not fate because this wasn't exactly what fate had in mind but she wasn't about to tell her Sergeant and the United States Air Force to fuck off right now. At least not while in uniform.

But someone had to fuck off and fate was the only thing she could think of to curse right now.

She wanted to punch something, kick something, scream, anything to let out this pent up anger and tension that was pulling her muscles so tight she thought any moment she was gonna snap right into the air like a rubber band.

"You ok?"

Charlie jumped a foot in the air, and that easily got rid of the tension as she brought her hand up to her heart. She was so off in her own head, she hadn't even realized she walked right up to where Sam was sitting in what had been dubbed 'their spot' right outside the empty hangar.

She ran her other hand through her hair, a little too aggressively if her scalp could say so, "Fine." She heard how sharp her tone was and sighed at herself. She didn't want to take it out on him, it wasn't her fault the entire Air Force top dogs were a bunch of sexist pricks. "Sorry." She apologized quietly as she slid down to the cold concrete and watched as a plane came in for landing.

Sam wasn't quite sure if he should stay quiet until Charlie initiated the conversation or if it was just best to bite the bullet and get this conversation over with. When it came to Goonie, the latter was usually the most helpful but also the least comfortable.

"What happened?"

"Nothing."

"Right. That's why you stomped all the way out here looking like your head was gonna explode and steam coming out of your ears." He playfully pointed at one side of her head, looking around to the other as if to actually see the smoke. It got a smile, albeit a small one, out of Charlie, which was really his only goal when he saw her storm out of the office and try to remain composed.

"I was told I was going to be on the Falcon team, just not getting wings," she paused, sucking in a breath. "Which was fine, I mean I was upset because I was sad I wasn't going to get to literally fly but whatever. I can get over that, or I thought I could," with a heavy sigh, the anger flashed back in her eyes. "I stood outside the door trying to just, ya know, grasp the rejection. Anyway, Marco," she practically spit his name out like it was the worst word to ever cross her lips, a swear, he who should not be named.

And in this moment, he was all of those.

"Marco what?" Charlie's head snapped to her right to look at Sam, his tone surprising her. He sounded as if he hated him just as much, which currently he had no reason to, not yet. But the serious look on his face had Charlie wondering what was floating around in Sam's head right now. Why he looked as though he wanted to fight Marco before even knowing the reason she hated him, just on mere principle that she did, was enough for him.

She hesitated on telling Sam the truth of what she had overheard, with the look on his face, she wasn't so sure he wasn't going to immediately storm into those offices and start throwing punches in Marco's direction and as much as she would have appreciated that from Sam, it wasn't a risk she wanted him to take. Not with Marco being a ranking officer in charge of a special ops team. Pulling her bottom lip between her teeth she tried to soften her tone, "You can't do anything about it Sam."

His jaw tightened, she was sure she could nearly hear his bones grinding under his dark skin. "I know you want to and I know you think it would help but if you went in there and tried to defend me? That would make it worse for me."

Sam looked away in disgust, not directed at her but at the situation and how he felt helpless. He knew she was right, he had seen sexism play out before in the military, there was no way he wasn't gonna do anything to jeopardize her well being and make the time she had left on this deployment a living hell all because he couldn't keep his mouth shut and his fists to himself.

Didn't mean he had to like it.

With a sharp nod, he bit out, "So what'd he do?" He was actively trying to make his tone less hostile but it was hard to let go of the rage he had so quickly.

A lump formed in her throat and her eyes started to fill, a mix of emotions coursing through her. Wanting to cry out of anger and hurt, scream out of rage, hide out of embarrassment. Not quite sure why she was feeling the response of wanting to curl into a ball so no one could see her, her cheeks red with heat and she just wanted to hide, ashamed.

Charlie continued to stare at Sam, still worried about upsetting him more but pushed on, "Marco and Miller told me I didn't score high enough on one of the physical training tests. That my knowledge of flying itself from being a pilot, and the score on the other tests was high enough that they'd be stupid not to at least put me on the team." She tucked her knees in, rested her chin on top and wrapped her arms around her legs. Physically making herself small, comforting herself. "When I was trying to process it all outside the meeting room, I guess they thought I completely left. Marco was talking about how it was a good thing they tipped the scales and rigged some of my scores in the other physical tests otherwise they'd have no choice but to give me wings.

"They said it would've made them sick if some bitch got to fly and they didn't."

Charlie whispered that last part as she watched Sam grow even more tense with every word that left her lips. His fists clenched and unclenched and his chest rose and fell quickly.

The lump in her throat had gradually turned into a pit in her stomach, "It's not fair."

Since they had been picked to run the special ops before any of the testing and training had begun, they had essentially been disqualified from even trying out. They had to be in charge of instructing everyone else and staying on coms while missions were happening with the rest of the team, making them bitter towards everyone that got to at least have more of a chance at flying than them, but especially Charlie. They were higher ranks and they were pushed aside for a woman.

"It's way beyond that Charlie. It's sexist bullshit disguised as bureaucratic red tape."

A heavy sigh escaped her lips, the only way she could really let out the heaviness of the emotions out without just letting out a scream like she really wanted, "It's just the way it is."

Sam shook his head, struggling with just accepting that. "I get there's nothing we can do about it," It came out through gritted teeth but Charlie bathed in the feeling of how it felt when he said 'we' in regards to the situation that was really only a direct attack on her. "It's still shitty."

Letting out a sarcastic laugh, not quite a scoff, Sam continued, "No one deserves that. To be discriminated against because you're a woman in a male dominated role. I mean it's the 21st century, we should be past that," pausing he turned to Charlie and she was struck by the intensity of his eye contact. "You're extremely smart, Goonie. You deserve to be here. To be on that team. And to have a _fair_ shot at getting those wings. Fuck those assholes," she couldn't help but let out a snort. "I know there's nothing that we can do about it _right now_ but I want you to know that if we make it on that team, I will spend every moment reminding them that you're more than capable of not only wearing those wings, but doing everything they do and I guarantee doing it smarter and better."

Speechless and feeling a million times lighter than she had just mere minutes ago, Charlie reached out and rested her hand on his and in a move that surprised her, he grabbed her hand and pulled her in for a hug. They were in a relatively secluded area on base, that's why it had so quickly become their spot, so there was no risk in a passerby assuming something untoward, although Charlie argued with her own head knowing that even had this been an non-consensual encounter, it was the military and it was pretty much guaranteed that it wouldn't have been reported. Shutting all those thoughts down just as quickly, she realized how relaxed she was starting to feel. With their arms wrapped around each other, Charlie really had to resist completely burying her face into his chest and nuzzle at the warmth she found there.

It wasn't lost on her that this was the first time she had felt 100% safe since she stepped foot on this base.

* * *

"The eight of you will be part of the Exo-7 Falcon Special Ops team," Sergeant Harkins made this mono-tone announcement from the front of the long meeting table, and that's how Charlie, Sam, and Riley found out they were officially part of this, after two weeks of being stuck in limbo, thinking they were probably in since they hadn't been told otherwise but not having anything except the suspicion.

Looking around the small briefing room, she noticed that the eight of them were all from varying ranks, hers being the lowest. Two majors, three captains, a technical sergeant, and two second lieutenants.

To the immediate left of the statuesque man in charge, sat Major Marco Ellsworth and Major Miller, Charlie realized she didn't actually know Miller's first name and had it not been the name printed on his uniform, she would've thought that was it considering that's how he introduced himself and she'd never heard him called anything else. Next to Miller sat Technical Sergeant Conner Johns, incredibly knowledgeable she wasn't surprised he was on the team, his ability to listen and communicate not only made him a great gossip but a good team member. Second Lieutenant Brian Kelly, was another pilot, one Charlie had come up with through basics, pilot and combat training with.

He sat directly across from her, which put her as far away from Marco and Miller as possible without her just not being sat at the table. It also made Sam and Riley, somewhat of a barrier as well. Rounding out the team was Captain Mason Walker.

"Now that the team has been put together, we'll get paperwork out of the way today, but I want to give more details about the missions you'll be on and how this team will work. You will be put in extremely dangerous situations," Harkins made sure to make eye contact with each of them, Charlie tried hard not to loudly gulp. While she knew being in the military automatically meant she was going to be in life or death situations, it never made it easier to hear, the heaviness of the situation bearing down on her shoulders. "With their familiarity in pararescue, Captains Wilson and Holmes will be operating the proto-type jetpacks."

Charlie wasn't sure she loved the idea of these still being considered proto-types. Shouldn't they be 100% done with tests on these once they were being strapped on the backs of humans? Especially ones she cared about?

Riley had turned to Sam, his smile threatening to break his face, and held out his fist for a bump, quietly exclaiming, "Wings!"

"There will be certain missions that will require all of you off the base and in tactical gear, assisting from the air and providing cover on the ground. Other missions will require only the flyers in the air, while the rest of you work from a briefing room for monitoring and recon, providing intel in real time. For the most part you will report to me with any findings this team makes. No one else on this base knows about the enormity of this task force and what will take place. The others that were in the preliminary testings for this team, only know it's special ops and more than likely that you all are a part of it, but they won't and _can't_ know the specifics. _Nothing_ leaves this room."

He passed out the folders that were in a stack in front of him, sliding down the dark grey folders filled with papers threatening to spill out.

"These include the forms you will need to fill out for me to send to higher ups in D.C." Slowly she opened the folder, almost intimidated and already feeling a little information overload just at seeing the amount of black ink on the white pages. "The rest is intel you need to brush up on and get familiar with. Know it inside and out, as if you found and reported it yourself."

Leafing through the pages, one in particular caught her attention and she let a gasp out loud she meant to keep to herself. There in big bold red letters read **CLASSIFIED** , but the words that had her blood turning to ice were the bold words written below that, **HYDRA INFILTRATION INVESTIGATION**.

"We have reason to believe that Hydra has been operating within our government and military. Including on this base. The intel in your dossier include names of targets and initial background on missions. These targets have known ties to Hydra and we believe are the ones providing classified information to the operatives inside the base and at home." Pausing, he waited a minute until they all looked away from the captivating and surprising information they were just handed. "This is why nothing will leave this room or this team. Outside that door, we don't know who is actually on our side and who is planning a takeover. So no matter the uniform or the rank, you will not give anyone information about your missions and intel in relation to Exo-7 Falcon."

The sergeant left the severity of the situation, their mission, and this operation hanging in between all of them. They all subtly looked at each other, silently committing their loyalty to each other, knowing they all now would have their head on a swivel and more so than they had been, would be relying on each other to stay alive.

"You'll have the rest of the evening to look through your folders, get familiar with the intel." Harkins made a move to leave before stopping to turn back to them, his hand in the air as he remembered one more thing. "Almost forgot, occasionally you will be contacted about this operation in D.C. and be assisted by Colonel James Rhodes. Godspeed."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have added more AU-ish elements if you want to call it that and will continue to do so as far as using certain characters and timelines. I'm taking a few creative liberties in places that the MCU has not exactly done well on explaining, like Sam's rank in the Air Force. Anyway, let me know your thoughts!


	6. Chapter Six

_**2012** _

They were four days into the new year, six months into their Falcon operation, and while things were clicking for them as a team, there was a slightly tense atmosphere hovering over them as they were all hypervigilant of possible infiltrations of Hydra operatives in their midst.

Charlie had lost count of how many missions they'd now completed, but they were going on at least one a week with the full team off base, with the team breaking into small recon teams in between. Every time it felt as though they had to be making a lot of ground on the main targets and getting closer to a major target bringing them to some kind of end game, another huge dossier was dropped on their briefing room table. So busy with gathering intel and taking out targets, they hadn't really been working on anything with the rest of the base or other squads so Sergeant Harkins had them moved to a hanger with barracks attached in a fairly empty part of the base, allowing for the team to have dorm rooms, commons areas, a command central and communications room, and a briefing room all to themselves.

It made it easier to bring up new theories in regards to missions when they didn't have to worry about anyone on the outside overhearing.

It also made it easier to grow more suspicious of each other's possible relations to Hydra.

Charlie had a nagging feeling that at least one of the other five on the team had to be traitors, but she ruled Sam and Riley out of that group fairly quickly. She had a growing animosity towards Major Ellsworth, one that built with every mission but she honestly couldn't tell if that was because she genuinely suspected he was Hydra or if he just continued to be a bigger sexist asshole the more she was around him.

She felt as though she could also eliminate her co-pilot Brian Kelly, callsign Books, as well, just based on the amount of time they've spent around each other since day one of training camp a few years ago and the amount of time she'd spent with him alone in a cockpit, she just found it hard to believe he would be able to hide his allegiance to Hydra for so long, that well.

Going down the list in her head as she sipped at her lukewarm coffee, waiting for the orders of the day in the briefing room, it was the final three members that she couldn't truly get a read on either way. She believed that if Marco was Hydra, so was Miller. Considering they were both team leaders, it was hard to imagine Marco getting away with anything Hydra related without Miller noticing, and if he noticed and wasn't Hydra, surely he would have reported it already? Unless he was being blackmailed? That's where Charlie had to stop herself from diving into theories and keep her eye out, continue to do her own recon.

She truly couldn't get a read on Captain Mason Walker and she wasn't sure if that meant she should suspect him more or if it meant he was in the clear. Technical Sergeant Conner Johns was one that she truly felt was clear, being in charge of all their gear, if he was Hydra he could've easily sabotaged them by now. Being a gossiper, he could've easily blabbed by now too.

Watching the rest of the team walk in, she shook those thoughts from her head, ready to focus on the mission today.

* * *

After their pre-mission brief and going through the pre-flight checklist, Charlie and Books were getting ready to board the Sikorsky HH-60 Pave Hawk, the helicopter assigned to their team, to assist Riley and Sam. Their latest mission was to travel to the outskirts of Bakhmala, to map out the whereabouts of their target Khalid Khandil. So far, all they knew is that he was in an area being protected by Hydra soldiers and the location was highly saturated with rocket propelled grenades. So while Charlie and Riley wouldn't be able to get too close, they were more there as backup, communication, and marking locations for intel for when they had enough information that they were comfortable going after and apprehending the target.

"Last one in the air is a rotten egg, Goonie!" Charlie and Books were getting seated and secured as they hear Riley yell from outside the hawk. Playfully, Charlie rolled her eyes and flipped him off.

"Little easier to take off when you have significantly less aircraft holding you down!" Books pointed to the wings on Riley's back in comparison to the aircraft they were currently holed up in.

Riley waved a hand, "Excuses, Books!"

Sliding her sunglasses over her eyes and putting her headset comfortable over her ears, Charlie watched as both Sam and Riley's wings expanded from their backs and they took off. It never failed to take her breath away.

Settling in, she looked over to make sure Books was set to go and after getting a thumbs up, she put the mic of her walkie down, "Command, mark us leaving base."

"Copy that, Parker," replied Captain Walker in her ear, she made note in her head that he was currently in charge of communications and not Marco or Miller.

After being in the air for a little more than an hour, they had slowly been marking a safe perimeter for their flight as Riley and Sam checked in with coordinates that indicated a safe location, marking areas that looked like they could potential have enemies hidden and be taken out, anything that looked as though ground had been disturbed and therefore could indicate an improvised explosive device had been planted and wouldn't be a safe path, should they need ground cover in the later stages of the mission.

It had been a quiet day in the air. Not that Charlie really minded the quiet, she sure preferred it over chaotic, but it did make for a slower day and feel as though they weren't making much headway on the overall goal of this operation.

Sam's voice broke through the headsets, " _Mark location as possible ground disturbance._ "

"Roger." Books made the mark on the paper map they had been using, going with fewer digital notes as they hedged their bets that Hydra was more likely to hack their computer system notes than their binders full of handwritten notes.

One slow beep indicated it was time for Charlie to check into command again, reading off their location and the level their tank was at, making sure everything was being recorded accurately and timed for them to make it back to base safely.

Sam and Riley called in a few more coordinates before everything had remained silent for a good twenty minutes.

The slow beep sounded again, Charlie furrowed her brows in confusion and checked her watch. "It's only been 20 minutes since we last checked in." She turned to Books for confirmation and that her watch hadn't broken.

With a nod, he confirmed, "Shouldn't have another check in for 25 minutes."

Suddenly, alarms started going off in a flurry and lights started flashing across the multiple screens on the dashboard. All different colors, nothing was signaling the same thing and Charlie was so startled by it that she sat back a bit with her hands up, trying to figure out where to start, "Are you doing that?" She asked her co-pilot quietly in disbelief, knowing this wasn't either of them but having no answer.

"Not me."

She was immediately worried when his voice was just as concerned as hers, she was hoping there would be more confidence there. Being in the air with absolutely no control over the helo was extremely unsettling and with so many things happening at once she felt all the training she had go out the window. It was complete information overload and she felt like her brain was short circuiting.

Having an unknown person or group hack into their piloting system had Charlie swallowing panic and trying her best to breath.

Then suddenly they dropped 10 feet before leveling out.

They were not only no longer in control of what their helicopter was doing or where it was going, whoever was doing this, was getting a sick pleasure in their anxiety. Her and Books both instinctively put their hands to the roof of the cockpit as if to catch themselves and stop the craft from falling simultaneously. They shared a look, "Get in touch with Command," Charlie tried to calmly tell Books, as she switched her walkie to communicate with Sam and Riley, hopeful that they could at least still communicate with their team, "Guys, we need a rescue at our location."

She had tried to say it smoothly so as not to alarm them, but they took a sharp right that had her palms sweaty.

"I can't get in contact with the command post at base." Books was also trying to keep his voice steady but Charlie instantly held her breath, trying to figure out what their next move would be and saying a silent prayer that Sam and Riley would still be in contact.

" _Headed your way, what do you have eyes on?"_ Riley's voice broke in over the headset and the two pilots released a breath.

"We need the rescue. The helo has been hijacked, we'll need to eject before it crashes." Assuming with how erratically the helicopter was now flying, with reckless abandon making them feel as though they were just people in a toy chopper being controlled by a kid who was just flying them around in the most unstable pattern with not real route, she figured they were either going to crash land or be flown through an RPG zone in enemy territory. Either way, she didn't see them surviving. "We've got our shutes, mark our current locations. No connection with command."

" _We're on our way, Goonie_." Sam was also having trouble keeping the panic out of his voice.

Throwing her headset off and onto the useless dash, with hands shaking she reached for her seatbelt and looked over at Books, "We've got to jump," she was calmed by the mask of determination that seemed to wash over his face, she wasn't necessarily sure if this was considered a flight or a fight response but she was waiting for whatever it was to kick in for her and put her brain on autopilot. He nodded stiffly and they both began to move from their seats towards the back side, as the craft continued it's jerky movements.

Double checking that she did indeed have her parachute strapped to her back, she tightened the straps to her chest, her stomach in her throat. Of course they were trained and practiced emergency ejections before ever actually flying solo but there was a huge difference between the controlled practice environment and this moment. Books reached out and squeezed her arm and gave a reassuring smile, "See you on the ground, Goonie."

With that, he jumped out of the wide open door of the helicopter and started falling, and Charlie swallowed her instinct to scream seeing him soar towards the ground at such a high rate of speed.

Sucking in a breath, she followed suit and threw herself out.

She watched below as Books pulled his parachute and it ballooned open, slowing his descent.

As the gap between them began to close, Charlie reached for her chord and pulled.

Nothing.

Trying not to panic further at not feeling the familiar drag of the air catching the canopy of her parachute slow her down, she reached for the reserve chute pull.

Nothing.

And suddenly she was fully having a panic attack while falling 120mph towards the hard Earth. Clawing at the sky, she was suddenly looking up at Books as she fell past him, she swore she heard him scream her name and tried to process reaching for each other as her life began to flash before her eyes. For a brief moment she wondered if this was the same or worse than if she had just stayed in the helicopter that she no longer had sight of.

She always expected that when she died, memories would flash slowly through her brain, instead it was just thoughts running at light speed in a jumble as she hurdled toward the ground.

Her ears were ringing and she was trying to get her brain to just turn off every sense so she didn't have to feel any of the emotions coursing through her as she was seconds from death. Thinking of her Aunt May, Peter, _Sam,_ she wanted to vomit at the thought of them finding out she died and possibly how. Of Sam being the one to find her, most likely crushed? Flat? It all made her incredibly sick and terrified.

She was thankful she wasn't looking at the ground but sensed it had to be getting closer, she had been falling forever and for three seconds all at once. She felt like she was still clawing and scraping at the open air while both her arms and legs felt like were made of lead, dragging her down quicker.

She squeezed her eyes closed.

And suddenly she felt herself hit something hard and her stomach dropped.

Her brain slowed and then sped up, realizing she hadn't hit anything and in fact something had caught her. And next thing she knew she was enclosed in metal, making a hard landing and rolling. The air knocked out of her the moment of the collision, and she was sure she inhaled some dirt that had been kicked up as she rolled twice more before coming to a stop on her hands and knees.

Instantly thrown into a panic attack, trying to force oxygen in her lungs, she wanted to stand but her knees were too weak. Her nerves were shot, over-sensitized from all the information her brain was trying to take in and make sense of in the last minute.

Feeling herself get an inhale for the first time since the jump, she immediately went into hyperventilating, clawing at the collar of her uniform, feeling like she was suffocating. She was able to take in the fact that she had tears streaming down her face. She flinched when she felt a hand on her back. Sensing the person was trying to talk to her but a high pitched piercing sound was still all she could hear.

Sam was on his knees in front of her, she saw his mouth moving, but she couldn't make anything out, she just shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut, giving into the spiral of this panic attack.

He grabbed both her hands in his and squeezed, she focused on how warm and soft they were.

Her ears popped and suddenly she could hear Sam's soothing, soft deep voice talking to her, "You're ok. You're safe," he was repeating it slowly over and over, obviously waiting for her hearing to come back so she could acknowledge, she nodded slowly and squeezed his hands in response. "Good," he murmured.

Charlie felt her breaths starting to come back normal and took a deep breath, moving into a sitting position. Her palms felt clammy and she swallowed bile back, willing herself not to vomit now that she was on the ground and not in immediate danger. Noticing her paler than normal complection, Sam had her bring her knees to her chest and rest her head in between. Still working on the deep breaths, she heard feet land heavily on the dry dirt ground nearby.

"What the fuck?" Riley let out the moment his wings folded up, sounding just as exhausted as Charlie was starting to feel. His heavy steps got closer to her and she felt him put a hand on her shoulder as he knelt down, "You ok?"

Blowing out a breath, Charlie honestly didn't know how to answer that question so she settled on continuing to focus on her breathing, vaguely she heard Sam quietly mention she was at the end of a panic attack.

Knowing it was the end was actually comforting because she felt like she'd been stuck in this state for hours even though it couldn't have been more than five minutes.

Another pair of feet landed on the ground hard, "Jesus Christ!"

The pack carrying Books' now useless parachute landed with a thud, Charlie looked up and squinted in the direction of the men. The sun shining brightly on them, taking in the unbearable heat beating down on them and then realizing they were sitting ducks now. She made a move to get up and all three took a step closer to her as she wobbled a bit.

Taking in the looks on their faces, Charlie realized the different angles of trauma they had all witnessed. Charlie's brush with death had been seen by each one of them. Her co-pilot watched helplessly as she seemed to continuously pick up speed after passing him on the way down and having no way to get to her since his parachute had been opened. Sam had seen her desperate attempts at grabbing a lifeline on the way down and had willed himself to pick up speed, more determined than any time in his life, to get to her before the ground did. Riley had been right behind Sam, watching the woman he considered one of his best friends in turmoil. Once he had seen Sam grab hold of her and make it to the ground in a hard landing roll, he circled back to make sure Books would make it safely to the ground as well.

They all seemed to take each other in, a quick assessment that they were all now safely on the ground but not necessarily safe where they were. They were out in the open, Charlie didn't really know where in relation to the base or relation to enemy territory and if they were closer to the latter they could easily be picked off one by one.

She wanted to ask what was next but she felt her body still physically shaking and knew her voice would too, she was thankful when Riley spoke up, "I notified command of your last location, I don't think we're too far from that. They have trackers on our packs, they were sending Johns out with a humvee last I heard. Comms are kinda shitty down here. He's five hours out."

Charlie was sure they hadn't flown five hours out from base but driving this area was entirely different. They had to take specific routes and slowly, considering the chance of IEDs, which accounted for the extra time it'd take.

"It'll be dark soon, we should at least try to find some cover," Riley nodded toward an area that seemed about 200 yards from where they were, a small mountain side that would at least allow for one side of protection. Nodding along, Charlie turned to follow them, Riley took the lead with Books behind, followed by Charlie and Sam. They stayed in a close line, slow steps, looking for any changes in the dirt, anything that would signal something had been planted in the ground to do them harm.

"You could just fly us back to base," Books spoke up after about twenty minutes of their slow trek, his tone amused, trying to lighten up the heaviness of the situation sitting on top of them.

"And carry your fat ass, Books?" Riley said with a laugh and sent a smirk over his shoulder. Charlie was grateful for the banter, giving her something easier to focus on. She felt like she was just on the cusp of being over the initial anxiety. "I'm not your personal carrier pigeon."

From behind, Sam snorted and that brought a soft smile to her face.

"Considering the situation, I'll pretend that made sense."

When they finally made it to the mountain side, they sat with their back leaning against the stone, each of them heaving out steady breaths, happy to have some semblance of safety. They had no water and no food, but the sun was beginning to set on the other side of the mountain and it wasn't too chilly yet. She figured they could just use the chute strapped to her back for warmth if it got to be too crisp. And that though spurred her next actions.

Ripping the clasps off her front, she shook the straps from her shoulders, moved the pack from her back to her front and began examining.

The men watched on with curiosity and furrowed brows, "What's up, Goonie?" Sam asked quietly.

"My chute didn't open either time. But we checked these before we left base," she turned to confirm with Books that he had also done the pre-flight examination as required, he nodded enthusiastically. They both knew the importance of those checks, it was to avoid what happened today. Sifting through the pile of fabric and examining every cord and failsafe, she noticed the ripchord had been cut on the inside of the pack, so when she had pulled it to deploy, it ripped the cord in two, no longer connecting it to the canopy. The reserve pull had been knotted on the inside after being cut from the chute itself, allowing her to pull it but causing it to do nothing. "It's cut," she said in disbelief. Looking away from the piece of equipment that was meant to keep her safe, "I was targeted?"

"But how?" Books was in just as much shock as Charlie was. "And why just yours? Why not tamper with both of ours? No one got on the helo between the time we did our checks and the time we took off."

Charlie opened her mouth to reply but had no answer, her eyes remained wide as she tried to make sense of what led to her close call with death.

"Marco." Charlie's head snapped to her right where Riley had spoken up, anger flashed on his face. "I saw Marco come out of the helo before you guys came to take off. I didn't think much of it, thought he was just putting intel on board or something," as the words tumbled out of his mouth he wanted to slap himself for not being more suspicious of what he had seen. It hadn't made much sense at the time and fitting the pieces together, it made even less so.

"Why would he jeopardize a mission he's a part of? Risk killing two pilots?" Sam's face also looked angry but before he could fully jump on board with this idea, he needed supporting evidence for this claim.

"Hail hydra."

All three looked over at Books' whisper.

" _Excuse_ me?" Riley asked harshly, jumping up and staring down Kelly, putting a hand on his service weapon just in case.

"Whoa! Whoa! Wait," Books said jumping up as well and putting his hands out in defense. Charlie got to her feet as well, leaning away from Books as Sam got in the same commanding stance as Riley, moving himself between Charlie and Books. "Not me! I'm not Hydra! It came up on the screen before we lost complete control!"

Everyone took a deep breath but the trio were still eyeing Books cautiously.

"It was a quick flash, I couldn't process it at the time with all the adrenaline but I saw it," he was desperate for them to believe him. Once they had been told that hydra operatives could be within their squad on base, the four would be lying if they said that they hadn't been on edge and grown terribly suspicious of their other brothers at arms.

Charlie believed him immediately. If Books was hydra, why even bother jumping and calling for help? He could've killed her while still in the cockpit and taken it over himself. Hell, he probably could've knocked her unconscious and threw her out of the flying craft if he really wanted to, and wouldn't that have been easier?

"Marco's Hydra," she bit out quietly but it was laced with a bitterness toward the team leader.

"Motherfucker."

"It makes sense. If he's Hydra, he knew which hawk to sabotage today and how. It'd explain why we couldn't get in contact with Command but we could still contact you guys," Charlie gestured to Sam and Riley. She brought up her hand to her mouth, biting her thumb nail out of anxiety for what she was saying. "He didn't want us to get in contact with Command because there wouldn't be a record of a mayday, and then he'd be questioned as to why he didn't respond or send out an emergency call."

As they all processed this theory, Riley spoke up, "Then why did he target you? He'd have to have known you guys would use your chutes if you lost control and contact."

"Because the helo hijacking was Hydra, the parachute tampering? That was personal." Sam couldn't hide his disgust as he pieced it all together. Shaking his head in anger, "He never wanted Charlie on the team, why not get her off it and make it permanent?"

Charlie suddenly felt nauseous all over again and swallowed hard.

Riley and Books looked at her, needing an explanation to that, not knowing what Marco had done previously.

"He rigged my PT tests so I wouldn't be a flyer. I did too well to keep me off the team completely. I'm assuming that Sargeant Harkins saw my results and forced his hand but I don't know for sure. I heard him talking to Miller about not wanting 'that bitch' getting to fly if they didn't," she hung her head, stille not being able to shake the feeling of shame for some reason.

"That fucker," if there was a tone of voice that could kill, Riley would've burned Marco alive with those two words. Books shook his head in disgust and balled his fists up. "Is Miller Hydra too?"

The foursome gave this a quick thought and then Sam spoke up, "If he's not, he has to at least be aware that Marco is, right? If Marco is sabotaging us, Miller's standing by his side watching."

The air felt thicker as the idea of both team leaders being their enemy lingered between the four.

"What about Johns and Walker?"

"We came up with Walker," Riley nodded at Sam. "I've never seen him do or say anything suspicious." The four nodded along feeling pretty confident their third Captain teammate was one of the good guys.

"And Johns?" Charlie asked quietly and no one was as quick to vouch for him as they had been Walker.

Books huffed, "Guess we find out when he picks us up and tries to kill us or not."

* * *

The longer they waited for Johns to appear and the closer they got to the time he should, Charlie felt her body begin to tense again with the anxiety that had been buzzing throughout her body since they had settled into their current spot. They were currently all sitting in a circle, their backs inward so they could keep watch from all angles.

"Heads up."

The other three looked in the direction Sam was taking watch and had spotted the humvee's headlights appear on the horizon.

"So how are we playing this?" Riley asked, turning to his team.

Sam shrugged and with ease replied, "We could just ask him."

If she had the energy, Charlie would've rolled her eyes.

"You think he'd actually tell us if he was?" she asked in disbelief.

The four thought on it longer as they watched the humvee move closer to their position.

"Well we have him out numbered, four of us, one of him. Why don't we feel it out once we're in, he should have questions about what happened, if anything seems suspicious, we move from there."

Books spoke up, "What do you consider suspicious? I mean he is actually showing up to rescue us, if he was Hydra, would he even bother?"

It was a good point. Charlie thought about it, if she had been Hydra she probably would've driven just far enough out to not be seen from base and just waited long enough to return and say she couldn't find them, leaving them to die from lack or water or food or an enemy to come across them and do the dirty work.

"Depends, we could still be useful to them."

Johns pulled up just in front of them, they all put their hands up to block out the headlights shining in their eyes and moved towards the humvee as it was thrown into park. When he hopped out of the vehicle, Charlie felt herself tense up in anticipation of the unknown. What stopped Johns from just gunning them down right here?

"You guys good?"

Riley made the first move, took a step forward and nodded, "Yeah. Ready to get the fuck out of here." Following Riley's lead they all moved to get into the humvee. Reaching the door, Charlie practically ripped it off the hinges just ready to get out of the open area as she listened to Riley instruct Johns on where to make the u-turn to get back on the exact path he took here. She was grateful that the trip back should be quicker than Johns' trip here considering he now had a path that was sure to be free of IEDs.

"Grabbed a case of water for you guys on my out," Johns' threw a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the 12 water bottles sitting at their feet. Charlie watched as Books was the first to reach for one, unscrewing the cap, he brought it up to take a sip but smelled it first. Her eyebrows rose, not really thinking it was possible for the water to have been tampered but really the extra-caution was more than warranted. Books shrugged before chugging half the bottle, the other three following suit.

"Any idea what happened up there?"

"We have a few ideas." Charlie wondered if Johns heard the strained tone with which Riley replied with, the implication in it.

"It was Hydra." Charlie's head snapped to her left to stare at Sam in shock. She knew he had very little patience and preferred a more direct approach than beating around the bush but they had been in the humvee for less than five minutes and half a bottle of water, she wasn't expecting their interrogation to start so quickly. "And Marco." Her eyes widened at him and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Riley once again put a hand on his service weapon.

Johns started chuckling and Charlie shifted her wide eyes on to him. "Thank God!" The four sat stunned in silence, waiting for Johns to continue. "I suspected that asshole from the moment we were told there was a double agent. That fucker has sleazy traitor written all over him. I just didn't want to say shit and risk being found dead in my dorm under suspicious circumstances." With their stunned silence, he quickly looked over his shoulder at the four, "Oh shit! Y'all thought I was Hydra too? Fuck that! America forever." He shook his head as if it was unfathomable that they could've even thought for a second he was Hydra. "Live and die by 'that others may live.'"

Charlie smiled proudly as Johns quoted the United States Air Force Pararescue motto, 'These Things We Do, That Others May Live.' And with that it felt as though everyone in the humvee exhaled collectively and were able to relax for the first time since hitting the ground.

* * *

Rolling up to the hangar on the far north side of the base that had become the command post for the team, the five members inside were buzzing with pent up anger that had consistently swelled. Hopping out of the large vehicle, Charlie felt her anger come to a crescendo as she spotted Marco standing in the middle of the large hangar door that was wide open. Before she could think it over too much, she began taking long, heavy strides in his direction.

A cool mix of determination and anger masked her face, while Marco stood there with his arms crossed and a smug look on his face, "Can't follow protocol, Parker? Always run through the checkli—"

Before he could finish his attempt at a dressing down, Charlie threw a punch that had her feeling the crunch of his nose beneath her knuckles. She didn't register the pain immediately, too satisfied with the noise of pain and surprise he reacted with.

She didn't miss a step either, continued to walk toward the doors to the interior of the base, ready to be done with this day and the punch using up the last of any energy she had.

After the initial shock wore off and Charlie was already a few feet away, Marco straightened from his bent over position, his hands coated and his face smeared with blood, "PARKER!"

She made no motion to turn around and acknowledge him, but Sam, who had been walking with the rest of the team behind Charlie and now tried to hide his smile of pride, got in between Marco and her. "No, I think you more than earned that," his voice laced with disgust as he pushed him back a step before turning to follow after her.

As Charlie got closer to the door, it swung open and the Sergeant appeared. Taking in the look of the weary faces of the four flyers, he decided not to address the blood on his team leader's face, "We'll debrief tomorrow morning."

His look of concern narrowed in on Charlie as she walked towards him. Not wanting to hash it all out now, hoping that _everything_ could wait to be discussed tomorrow, she paused in front of him, "Sir."

"Parker," he nodded back. "Glad you and the team made it back safely, get some rest."

Nodding her head, Charlie moved inside and once out of eyesight, nearly ran to her dorm, feeling herself become closer and closer to crumbling.

Once in the bathroom, she turned the shower to the hottest setting and practically ripped at her uniform to get it off. It wasn't until she was engulfed by the steady stream of water did she finally succumb to the weight of emotions that had threatened to take her down all day. The sobs wracked her body and she fell to her knees, no longer able to hold herself up with the body wracking cries and the shaky knees. In the back of her mind she was thankful that being the only woman on the team meant her dorm wasn't shared with a roommate and therefore there was no chance anyone could hear her near wailing.

Not only had she almost died, she was targeted specifically. That's what had her in agony. Being in the military she knew the threat of death was always looming. Being in a special team that knew about an infiltration from a deadly group such as Hydra, she knew she had taken a step closer to being a target. She had assumed that target was a general one, one the entire team equally carried on their back. But today, she was the only one wearing it and the enemy very nearly hit the bullseye.

After close to an hour of sitting on the floor of her shower and soothed by the hot water, her tears had dried up and her head had started to pound. Getting out and drying off, she quickly changed into a pair of sweatpants, a sweatshirt, and socks, for once thankful the Air Force had accidently given her men's sizes in her loungewear because it provided extra comfort tonight.

Feeling exhausted, she couldn't wait to crawl into bed but her stomach growled and she realized she couldn't remember the last time she ate, food having been the furthest from her mind since getting on the helicopter earlier in the afternoon.

Sighing, she couldn't be bothered to put shoes on as she left her dorm to make her way to the small kitchen area in the barracks. Being the only team in this building, she didn't care much for being put together, whatever that looked like at 2 a.m. on a military base. She figured she deserved to walk around in oversized sweats and socks if only to get a snack, she deserved that.

Turning the corner into the kitchen, Charlie tensed at first upon realizing she wasn't the only one seeking out food but she wasn't feeling up to any kind interaction with the team. She thought about turning around and just going to bed hungry until she saw the person rummaging around in the fridge was Sam.

Not wanting to startle him as his back was to the doorway and she was sure his nerves were shot just as much as hers were, she cleared her throat softly. Sam spun around with a chocolate bar in his hands, very much looking like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar but relaxed when he saw it was her.

She learned a couple of weeks ago that his mom sent Hershey's bars in his care packages once a month and he liked to hide them in the fridge because as he told her when she found the hiding spot in the vegetable drawer, " _If it's not in a s'more, straight out of the fridge is the only way to eat it!_ " Smiling softly, he snapped the bar in half and extended it to her. Sam moved to sit down in the seat in front of him facing the door, Charlie chose the seat to his left instead of across from him not wanting her back to the door.

Quietly, they each ate their half of the sweet chocolate. Taking time to savor it like a delicacy.

Finishing her last piece of chocolate, Charlie looked down at the table, her finger tracing invisible patterns, "Thanks for saving my life," she had tried to sound nonchalant about it, tried to keep her tone light, but it failed and instead sounded exhausted and sad, exactly how she felt.

"You scared the shit out of me, Goonie." Upon hearing the crack in his voice and the emotion laced there, Charlie's head snapped up to look at Sam, his face displaying the same weary look she was sure was on hers.

Her eyes watered and she tried desperately to smile but she pulled her lips together in a grimace, softly replying, "Me too."

Sam reached over and grabbed her hand, Charlie immediately flipping hers over to grab back and squeeze. "You're safe now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a review and let me know what you thought of this chapter and what you think might happen in the next. Thanks for reading!


	7. Chapter Seven

_**2012** _

The next morning, the team sat around the briefing room table, two carafes of coffee sat in the middle of the table filling the room with the scent of fresh coffee that kept them all awake as no one looked to have gotten any sleep the night before. Sergeant Harkins took seat at one end of the table, Colonel Rhodes taking the other end in the form of a large screen projecting his presence at the meeting from D.C.

Charlie couldn't help but notice that once again she and Marco were seated as far away as possible from one another but this time she knew that was more of a conscious effort by the rest of the team.

The icy glares being sent his way confirmed that.

"While the events of yesterday were traumatic," she noticed the sergeant try not to look only at her as he started his speech, but she was sure she was the most traumatized of all of them. Not that it was a contest. Certainly not one she wanted to be winning. "I don't think we need to go outside this room for an investigation just yet. We knew Hydra had plants on base, so it's not out of the realm of possibility they have infiltrated every level. Including comms and internal servers."

"And my parachute? How'd they hack that?" She made sure to stare at the wood grain of the table, otherwise she wasn't sure if she could control the daggers she'd shoot at Marco.

"Yeah, how do we know it's not someone in this room?"

It almost felt as though the air in the room was sucked out, the silence deafening. Out of the corner of her eye, Charlie could see that Sam said that while staring directly at Marco. As much as she admired his no-nonsense attitude, she wasn't sure now was exactly the time to confront their theories just yet.

"We've thoroughly vetted all of you, Captain Wilson." Colonel Rhodes spoke up. "Not only when you joined the Air Force but when you were put on the short list for this team. Anything even remotely suspicious was flagged."

Charlie could see the look in his eyes that he wanted to ask the same question she did, _what if those files were hacked and changed too?_ But she felt this was all too soon to start pointing fingers at Marco. Afterall, cornering him didn't seem like the right play and Sam was quickly working on backing him into the wall behind him. Even though Marco looked pretty calm and collected for someone getting thinly veiled traitor accusations thrown at him.

Subtly she shook her head, hoping he caught the signal to drop it for now, save it for a time when they had a plan, a strategy.

Even Colonel Rhodes looked like he wanted to ask Sam what he was thinking, what led him to questioning the team makeup, if he knew anything specific. Afterall, Colonel Rhodes would be lying if he said he didn't have suspicions of his own, he had plenty, but being in D.C. made it harder for him to act on those suspicions and he wasn't so sure his video feed or the office he was in wasn't compromised too.

"I'll be honest Parker, we don't know what happened to your parachute and we can all come up with theories, but they'd be just that. Theories and no way to prove them." Charlie tried so hard to not roll her eyes at her sergeant. _Bureaucratic bullshit_. "But we can remedy that. Next mission, we'll do the checklist as normal, but pilots will keep their chutes with them at all times as soon as they've been signed out from the weapons and armor room. That way no one will be able to tamper with it from the time you do your check to _if_ you should need to use it."

Charlie was satisfied with that, although not thrilled about carrying the pack around for close to an hour.

"To combat the issue of our systems being hacked." Rhodes spoke up once again. "We'll try to keep missions to flyers and ground back up. They can't hack our vehicles on the ground and you all have managed to mark a solid perimeter of where we can move in and out of. So we shouldn't need the chopper for scouting any longer and we'll stick to using it for emergencies should we need to."

 _Great_ , Charlie thought, _first I don't get wings and now I've been literally grounded_. She couldn't help but feel like she was getting punished for almost dying.

"Is there anything else we need to address at this moment?" Sergeant Harkins asked as he stood up. "No offense, but you all look like shit so I think you could do with a day off."

There was still tension in the air but they all shook their heads, muttered a _no sir_ and got up to leave the meeting room.

Charlie, Sam, and Riley were the first out of the room, feeling like they needed to get out of the stuffy room and into the open hall, feeling like they needed to come up for oxygen.

"We need to have our own debrief," Books whispered as he passed by the little circle they had all formed in the hallway outside briefing.

"How are we gonna do that without Marco catching wind that we're on to him?" Charlie whispered as she watched Books walk away, trying to look as casual and inconspicuous as possible.

Sam crossed his arms, leaning against the hall, not looking quite as relaxed as he probably hoped he did. "Let him know we know." He said with all the confidence in his voice and a shrug for emphasis. "We outnumber him."

Swallowing, Charlie raised her eyebrows, skepticism written all over her face. As much as she wanted to believe that, she wasn't sure she could. "Do we?"

* * *

"Welcome to the first resistance meeting, codename Watergate." Riley's shit-eating grin on his face welcomed Books, Johns, Charlie and Sam, with his arms spread wide in greeting, as wide as he could in a humvee. Which meant his hands almost smacked Sam and Charlie in the face. This humvee was one of the six assigned to the team and somehow they'd all managed to stealthily get to the vehicle, with no one the wiser. Or so they hoped.

Looking around at the others, and taking in how they all were cramped in the back, Charlie's eyebrows lifted, "Watergate? That's really what you want to go with?"

"We called this meeting quickly, I didn't have much time to think of a name and it felt appropriate." Offense filling his voice, had this not literally involved life and death matters, Charlie absolutely would play into the humor of this and appreciated Riley's playful manner of the situation, but she was still struggling with her close call.

Sam, always the one to keep everyone on track, especially Riley, spoke up, "We're not bringing Walker into the fold?"

"Wasn't sure if we wanted to do that just yet. I mean I trust the guy but I think we need to get our information together first, make sure the five of us are on the same page first." Riley replied with a shrug.

"Do we think Miller is Hydra? At the very least—" Charlie cut herself off, not really knowing where to go with what she was thinking because she was still so conflicted.

"At the very least, he's got plausible deniability." Books spoke up. Charlie pointed at him, agreeing with his assessment.

"Marco has rank in Hydra for sure, probably more pull than Miller, I think he's calling the shots for them." Johns spoke up.

"So Miller is just a follower." Charlie said, tossing this idea around in her head. "You think Marco's the highest Hydra rank on base?"

"It'd make sense to have the highest ranking member infiltrate a top secret special ops team," Sam spoke up. "Big picture though? What happens if they're not the only two on base? What happens after we expose them?"

No one had an answer to that.

"What if we handle it internally?" Riley asked.

With a furrowed brow Johns spoke up, "You mean like put out a hit on 'em?" They all swung their head around to look back at Riley because that's exactly what he made it sound like.

He shrugged with a thoughtful look on his face, "Wasn't really what I was thinking but now that you mentioned it, is that not what he did to Goonie?"

Charlie inhaled deeply at his point. But would they be able to get away with it? "Look, why not bring this to the sergeant? We have a pretty solid theory and we have no reason to believe Sergeant Harkins or Colonel Rhodes are in with Hydra, right?" She looked around at everyone, making eye contact with Sam last. "What do you think?"

She didn't mean for it to seem that she trusted him and his opinion on the matter more than the other three, but somewhere deep down she knew she did. She trusted them all with her life, after yesterday she had no reason not too, but her trust in Sam was different. She'd be lying if she said she couldn't exactly pinpoint _why_ she intrinsically trusted him so deeply but she was trying to swallow that down. That was something to deal with later.

With a sigh, Sam thought for a second before giving his opinion. "Unless something major happens again, let's give it a couple days, see if we can get more evidence to back up our theory and then we go to Harkins."

Everyone nodded in agreement. After all, what they had could be seen as circumstantial, it would be best to solidify their theory with more evidence, just hopefully it didn't put any of them in as much danger as it had yesterday. Luckily, they now knew to be on alert, all of them being extra visualant and hopefully preventing any more close brushes with death.

* * *

While Charlie had hoped her shaken nerves would've calmed overnight or after both debriefs, she found herself still feeling restless. She felt like a caged animal sitting in her dorm and quite frankly, didn't love being under the same roof as Marco and Miller on top of being alone in her room. Lacing up her beat up converse, she grabbed her Captain America biography off her night stand and headed outside, figuring some fresh air had to help the residual anxiety looming within her.

And of course like a moth to a flame, she found herself heading outside the hangar looking directly at Sam sitting against the cool metal, knees bent, with a book in his lap. She couldn't help the small smile that crept on her face. She admittedly stared a little too long but seeing his features so soft and his body relaxed felt like a welcome sight after the last twenty four hours. As quiet as she could, she made her way over, passing in front of him before sitting down to his left, facing him and also the hangar opening feeling the need to be on alert.

"Been a while since we had book club," She tried to keep her tone as light as possible. After all if she could fake that she wasn't feeling antsy, maybe her mind and body would believe it. Sam looked over and smiled.

"I think we have to be reading the same book for it to be a book club."

Charlie just batted a hand at him playfully, "Semantics."

Chuckling, he tipped his chin at her, "How are you feeling?"

She knew this was just in his nature, to ask how people were because he genuinely cared about them and normally Charlie appreciated it tremendously but today she really wished he hadn't.

Lifting a shoulder in what she hoped looked like a nonchalant shrug, she responded quietly, "I'm okay."

Sam could swear he saw her chin slightly wobble before she answered and her eyes watered a little, he definitely wasn't supposed to notice it, so he just nodded in acceptance. He understood that not enough time had passed for her to really be honest with her emotions regarding the day before and if _he_ was being honest, he wasn't ready either. He wasn't sure he had a stretch of sleep last night that was longer than 10 minutes because every time he shut his eyes, he just saw her plummeting to the hard ground and he could never quite catch up to her. Every time she was just about to crash, the absolute terror that filled her eyes in that second had Sam startling awake in a panic. It was a wonder how he didn't wake Riley in the bunk on the other side of the room with his near dry heaves.

"Whatcha reading?" She interrupted the thoughts he was drowning in and Sam was grateful but he could still by the tone of her voice that she was forcing the nerves away and trying to replace it with the appearance of being ok. So he went along with it.

Flipping over the cover, Sam let a small laugh of embarrassment out. "Uh well, I think it was supposed to be a joke from my dad but it's turning out to be super interesting." He scratched the back of his neck, feeling the most uncool he has ever felt as he tilted the cover towards her. In big bold type the cover read **THEY'RE HERE** , with a silhouette of what could only be an alien standing in front of what she assumed was supposed to be some kind of modern day fort.

She couldn't help the loud laugh that bubbled up, "Area 51?" She asked incredulously.

With a mock-offended look on his face Sam stared at her with raised eyebrows, "Oh, you're gonna judge me? Weren't you the one that believed Carol Danvers was abducted by aliens?"

"Pfft. Yeah, but there's a difference than believing aliens are up there," Charlie motioned to the wide open sky, swirling her hands around to emphasize the expansive area. "It's entirely different believing the government has some kind of fort _holding_ them to experiment on or whatever."

With a snort Sam continued, "Look I never said I _believed_ it, I said I found it interesting." He sounded more like he was trying to convince himself more than her.

"Okay, sure." She said with a very sarcastic nod and smile. "So if you don't believe in it, why did your dad send it to you?"

Sam gave a heavy sigh and Charlie knew she was about to get something good from this story. "My dad is a state representative for Maryland and has worked for the government my whole life. So since I was old enough to learn about Area 51, I would pester my dad about it, convinced he had to have some insider knowledge." A wistful smile came across his face, it was clear how he talked about him that Sam had a close relationship with his dad, that in turn had Charlie smiling just as much. "My mom's been a capital hill reporter since before I was born, so of course she had to have sources on it too. I used to ask her to ask the president next time she was at the oval office. I was like seven so I just figured she must walk around the White House all day and had to hear things. Eventually I grew out of the alien phase but my dad makes sure I don't forget about the obsession I used to have." He chuckled holding up the book a little bit to emphasize it, and Charlie couldn't help but find their family dynamic cute, even if this was just one example.

And then a realization came to her, she noticed the similarities between Sam and someone she used to see on TV every weeknight.

"Wait! Is your mom Sarah Scott? From ACN?" She tried to hold back her excitement.

Sam's eyebrows shot up, by now he'd gotten used to Charlie's perchance to fangirl over strong females, so he couldn't say he was too surprised that Charlie not only knew who his mother was but clearly had a love for her work. He nodded and chuckled when Charlie's eyes got wide. She just barely was able to hold a squeal back.

"I love her!" Charlie thought about slapping herself for blurting that out, she felt her cheeks burn red with embarrassment of her lack of filter. "Uh, I mean. My dad and I always watched her segments on the nightly news and my mom read her book to me when I was kid. It almost had me going into journalism but school is more of my brother's thing than mine. He's ten and probably smarter than I'll ever think about being." Maybe if she rambled enough she could forget about her earlier uncontained excitement.

"That's a bit of an age gap."

"Yeah, we're not quite sure which one of us was the accident." Her voice was laced with humor, clearly a joke that she had made more than once. Thinking about it, maybe her brother was a little young to make those jokes with but they both knew it was all in good natured fun. "The fourteen year age gap was definitely weird at first but it was way more fun as he got older. And I like that I get to at least share my memories of our parents."

Sam gave her an inquisitive look as a somewhat sad look came over her features.

"My parents died in a car crash right after his third birthday. So we have lived with our Aunt May and Uncle Ben since then." She paused, looking down as she wrung her hands together. She didn't feel as uncomfortable talking about them, it was just that she wasn't sure if this was too much too soon. She'd just learned over the years that the dead parents conversation wasn't one that generally kept guys around.

"I'm sorry that happened. It's not fair." Sam was genuine in his apologies and Charlie was grateful it didn't have the same throwaway tone she'd heard from others. "But your brother is lucky to have you to keep your parents' memory alive."

"Thanks." She said it softly, looking down at her own book, trying to figure out how to get away from this conversation. She really didn't mean to bring the mood back down, she had been trying to stay in the happy bubble she was attempting to create but of course word vomit got the best of her. So she went for the abrupt topic change, or really topic turnaround. "So what about you? Any siblings?"

Biting her lip, she was cringing on the inside. Were you even supposed to bring up family this early in a date?

 _Date?_ She hoped the look on her face was not what was reflecting her thoughts in her head or else Sam would've been confused by the screams, alarm bells, and wide eyes that just popped out as her brain threw out the idea of this being a date without even a conscious effort.

_Could this even be a date? Is that allowed?_

"I'm an only child."

"Oh." And suddenly her cheeks were flaming even harder because she was so stuck in her own head now and having an inner conflict that she couldn't even properly engage in this conversation now which in turn also had her annoyed and even more embarrassed. She just could not win today.

She wanted to take her hardcover book and just hit herself as hard as she could, surely being unconscious would be less embarrassing than her current feeling.

Thankfully, Sam seemed to have a knack for defusing her awkward tendancies. God bless him, always saving her. From the external physical threats and the internal mental ones as well. "How do you like it so far?" He said pointing to the 500 page biography she was only a quarter of the way through, one she borrowed from him. Captain America's handsome face brightly smiling back at her.

"Oh! It's really good, I'm surprised I haven't read it before. But probably for the best since now I get to read it with the additional chapter. I mean I can't even imagine being in a coma for like a year let alone being an actual popsicle for decades." She had to pull back her excitement on the topic just a bit, pace herself in the conversation, because much like Carol Danvers, Captain America was something she could get going about for hours.

Sam shook his head with a chuckle, "Me either. I mean that's a lot of transitions he missed in music. Going from 40s music to the current stuff? That might have him wanting to go back to being frozen."

"So music would be the first thing you'd seek out?"

"I don't know if it's the first thing I'd seek out, maybe the first thing I'd recommend to someone like him. Marvin Gaye? The Trouble Man soundtrack? That's all you'd need!"

A wistful smile covered his face as he closed his eyes, clearly hearing the music in his head. Charlie couldn't help but stare at him, the soft look on his face a stark contrast from yesterday, the afternoon sun shining behind him, she wished she had a camera so she'd have a physical reminder of this moment and the warmth she felt from it.

"What about you? If you met Captain America, what would you recommend he do first?" Sam asked, tipping his chin at her, smiling with genuine interest.

"Before or after I pass out?" Charlie's tendency to fangirl often showed her rambles as evidenced earlier but she knew, given the chance to meet an actual hero she's read about in history books in school and biographies beyond that, she was sure her brain would most likely short circuit.

Sam snorted.

With a smirk and shrug, she replied, "Probably watch The Goonies."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter, it was a little slower on purpose. Needed to have a chapter for everyone to catch their breath after last chapter and before the next one because it's gonna be another heavy one. Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!


	8. Chapter Eight

It was a month later when they were handed their final mission assignment. Being that it was the culmination of all the previous work they had done, Colonel Rhodes had joined them on base.

"Tonight we will undertake the apprehension of Khalid Khandil." They were in the briefing room, both Sergeant Harkins and Colonel Rhodes stood at the front by the projection screen which had a photo of their target and other mission data that had been collected over the last few months. "As you know he is a high level Hydra agent believed to be under the protection of Hydra soldiers hiding out in Bakhmala." Colonel Rhodes brought up a satellite photo that marked where the target location was in red and the perimeter the team had located in blue. "Captains Wilson and Holmes will be the only two to infiltrate that perimeter. Their wings will allow them to out maneuver the RPGs we know Khandil uses to stay protected."

Sergeant Harkins spoke up, "Parker, Johns, Walker, and Kelly. You'll provide ground cover as a final measure. However, you'll be stationed in the humvee just outside the perimeter. You'll only leave the humvee should there be a need for emergency backup support."

They nodded in response, but Charlie felt a wave of unease spread throughout her. There would be miles between them and the target, there was so much that could happen in the time it would take backup to get to Sam or Riley if something happened. She tried to tuck that worry deep down, hopefully she could use it for adrenaline later if needed.

"Marco and Miller will stay at command and take over communications," The Watergate team subtly shared a look with each other as the Sergeant made that statement. It was a wonder how they always managed to stay on base for every mission, never once needing to be in the field. "Colonel Rhodes will be on standby here, once Wilson and Holmes have the target apprehended, he'll aid in escorting him back to base. Then secure him back to D.C."

Riley spoke up. "What if we can't apprehend him?"

He stared directly at Marco while saying it, daring him to have a reaction. Afterall he was talking about possibly killing a high-ranking Hydra officer in front of one of the higher ranking Hydra infiltrators on base, surely that would get some kind of emotional response. Charlie swore she saw his eye twitch.

"This isn't a rescue mission. He is a high-ranking official who we'd like to get back to D.C. to try and crack, we need to know what he knows." Rhodes spoke up. "However, if your safety is threatened? If he won't come easily?" Rhodes eyed everyone in the room but there was something in his look that made her think he knew they were suspicious of a Hydra infiltration in the room. "You take the shot."

"Yes, Sir."

"If everyone is understanding of the mission at hand?" Everyone nodded shortly at Harkins, indicating they were ready to move, the air thick with anticipation. "Begin your gear checkout and get ready to roll out at twenty hundred hours."

They had a couple hours to prepare.

Clearing his throat, Riley muttered "Watergate." Trying to cover it with a cough, Charlie rolled her eyes.

"You know it's a wonder how you were chosen for a special operations team considering subtlety has never seemed to be your strong suit."

Whipping his head back and forth to look around, Riley replied, "It's not like they heard or know what I'm talking about and if they do who cares, fuck the traitors." Charlie couldn't help but smile at that, it was a shared sentiment after all. Forming a circle, they weren't exactly being subtle themselves either. "What do you think about bringing Walker in the fold?"

Rubbing a hand over his face, Sam spoke up. "I mean it's our last mission, not much of a risk if we do."

"I mean if he is on their side, it shouldn't be too hard for us to tie him up in the back of the humvee if he tries something."

Charlie's heart sank. Because while Johns was right, she was really hoping it didn't come to that. She liked the idea that there were only two traitors on this team, and hopefully the entire base.

* * *

"Hey Walker!"

The group filling the humvee with supplies turned at Riley's yell as he strutted towards them with Sam following behind looking put out. Charlie gave a quizzical look to Sam when they made eye contact and he just shook his head. "So since this is our last mission as a secret special ops team, I gotta ask, what do you think of Miller and Marco?"

Closing her eyes with a deep sigh, Charlie muttered, "Subtle."

"You mean do I think they're Hydra?" Walker didn't miss a beat, asking that question while checking off boxes on the routine pre-mission sheet, never once looking up. Meanwhile the rest of them surely looked comical with their wide eyes and dropped jaws. Walker looked at them, chuckled and shook his head. "I picked up on the not-so-subtle jabs that have been tossed around the last couple months. I hear things. It helps to be quiet and blend in to the wall. You should work on your whispering because it's not that quiet."

Sam smacked Riley on the shoulder and stared him down.

"But yeah, I think they're Hydra, you all do too apparently. And I'm guessing I'm the last in this side group," He put his clipboard down to his side and stared at Riley. Charlie had to admit while Riley, Sam, and Walker were all the same rank, something about Walker was extremely more intimidating. Maybe it was the fact that while Sam and Riley had muscles, they were more on the slender side, whereas Walker was bulky and therefore scarier. "Did you think I was part of Hydra?"

Charlie watched Riley swallow hard, she was sure Walker was intentionally trying to intimidate Riley, a little hazing for being last in the loop, she supposed that was fair.

"I… uh...no. I...mean we didn't... we never thought." Riley stumbled on his words and looked to Sam for help who was trying to hold back a smile and probably laughter.

Walker stared him down a few more seconds before cracking a huge smile. "It's all good, I probably would've played it the same way. So what's the plan now?"

With a heavy sigh of relief, Riley's shoulders visibly relaxed.

"We're gonna bring it up to Harkins and Rhodes after this mission." Sam spoke up, crossing his arms. Charlie tried not to stare at his muscles too much. "Should be easier to bring up if we're done with missions and we'll be off base soon enough."

"Y'all got proof?"

Books shrugged, "Circumstantial mostly, but it's pretty tight."

"Good." Walker nodded. "That's good. Can't wait for these fuckers to get what's coming."

They were interrupted when the hangar door swung open and the sergeant looked out at them, "Wilson! Holmes! Suit up!"

Glancing at her watch she noticed it was twenty til and they would be moving out soon so they could be at the perimeter before Sam and Riley were in the air.

Before turning back to the hangar, Riley spoke up once more, "Since we're all on the same page now, if something feels wrong, you get a bad gut feeling?" He made contact with each member of the team, his tone serious. "We go rogue. They've already put us in life threatening situations, we're not gonna let them do it again. We all go home whole."

All nodding in agreement and solidarity, Johns spoke for all of them, "Yes, Cap."

* * *

"You took my wings."

"They're the same wings!"

"They fit differently, I had my harness exactly how I wanted it. You couldn't have just taken the pair you'd been wearing this entire time?"

"Mom and Dad are fighting." Johns spoke up with a snort of laughter and a smirk from his position looking out the back window of the humvee. Everyone else in the humvee gave a chuckle as well. Since they got in the air, Sam had been complaining that Riley had apparently taken his wings. If Charlie didn't know better she would've thought they were two kids complaining about getting their favorite action figure being taken before he had a chance to claim it. Charlie was sure they were the exact same pair of wings. She was sure there was no way in all the missions they've completed that Sam hadn't used the exact same pair every time. But he was insistent on it and it was giving the ground team some entertainment.

They continued their bickering but Charlie started to tune them out as she focused out her window. While they were outside their perimeter, they still had to be on high alert. It wasn't as if the perimeter was a forcefield.

"The last mission and I have to be even more uncomfortable because of you."

"Jesus, suck it up. I'll buy you a few beers once we're stateside to make up for it."

Charlie couldn't help but chime in, she could see on the GPS they were closing in on the perimeter and the lighthearted fun would end soon. "And what do we get for being held hostage by this argument?"

"Don't worry Goonie, we wouldn't forget about ya!"

Johns exaggerated clearing his throat.

"Yeah yeah, the rest of you too."

"You're closing in on the perimeter." Walker spoke up to Sam and Riley from the driver's seat of the humvee. Miller probably should've been the one to make that note back from command but they all figured they weren't even paying attention to them unless the sergeant was around.

Charlie watched as Sam and Riley flew by overhead and soared into the target zone.

Walker spoke up again, "Eyes up, stay steady. It's quiet now, but we gotta stay on our toes." They made sure they kept cover from all sides, the humvee running should something happen, they could waste no time.

She tried to tap her foot quietly as she shifted her eyes between the front passenger window and the windshield, looking for any flicker of light, movement of a person or weapon. She felt like she was on edge, she felt like something was gonna happen. But she couldn't honestly decide if it was because something felt off... different. Or if it was because she still had an anxious feeling going on missions since she fell from the sky. If now that something had happened, something would always happen.

And then suddenly it looked as though the sky was lighting up with fireworks and the comms came to life.

Sam's voice came in statically over the sound of explosions. "I can confirm RPGs."

Charlie was sure everyone in the vehicle sat up a bit straighter.

"We're closing in on the location of the hideout." Riley's voice changed as he swooped in and out, she assumed dodging the deterrents aimed at them.

It was deadly silent for what felt like ten minutes but surely only ten seconds. She was sure she stopped breathing in that time. She swore she could feel the ground shake from the fire fight between Sam, Riley, and the Hydra soldiers on the ground and the explosives firing in the air and dropping dead to the hot, dry dirt.

"I've made contact with his soldiers, we should be able to apprehend soon." Sam's voice was loud and labored. "About six unfriendlies on the ground still."

She gripped her rifle harder out of the adrenaline that started coursing through her by proxy of hearing Sam and Riley's mission through her ear piece. Their comms left open so it was easier to communicate as they focused on avoiding getting shot at while also shooting. Trying to get close enough to get them but far enough away that they wouldn't be hit.

"Five." Riley's strained voice came through once and then again. "Now, four."

If not for such a serious situation, Charlie would scream for them to stop. This countdown wasn't helping her nerves, in fact it felt like it was more of a countdown for a total meltdown.

"Three. Riley dive sharp and then bank left." She could only assume this was a confusion tactic. "Two."

"On it."

A cacophony of noise had Books and Johns joining Charlie and Walker at the front, the resounding book sounding of an atomic bomb. They watched as an explosion in the sky lit up, three RPGs zeroed in on one target and collided. One object fell from high in the sky, plummeting at a rate too fast.

"RILEY."

Charlie's blood froze, Sam's voice sounded like a yell of agony and anger.

"Wilson, what happened to Holmes?" Walker's voice was stern but calm and Charlie couldn't imagine how he did that when surely he also had adrenaline coursing through his body now, she could feel a buzz of uneasiness in the humvee.

"He's down." His voice was sharp but it cracked with emotion. "I can't see him. I can't get to him." The helpless tone had Charlie's heart on the verge of shattering.

Before she could top herself, she spoke up as she strapped on her helmet, "Keep to the mission, we got Riley." She pushed open her door, jumped out and waited for the other men to join her.

"It's too dangerous to go into the perimeter, Goonie."

Speaking to both Sam and the rest of the ground team,"We'll go on foot, we'll be less of a target than in a humvee, harder for any satellite GPS they may have to pick us up."

"You're not supposed to be in the perimeter!" Charlie held back the need to roll her eyes as Sam used his Captain voice on her. He was a higher rank than her sure, but this wasn't a moment she was going to be treated as a subordinate.

She spoke quickly, "Harkins said for an emergency, this is an emergency extrac—"

"Damnit Charlie, it's too dangerous!" Same interrupted, his voice louder. She matched his tone.

"We're not leaving him!" She let out the heavy breath she was holding in and softened her voice. "We can't. We'll go quickly. You focus on getting Khandil."

Sam was quiet after that, and she assumed he was turning his anger into focus.

Charlie turned to the rest of the team and they nodded in agreement. Walker, as he had rank between the four of them, spoke up, "Like Parker said, we go in, get Holmes, we get out. We move watching all sides. Once we get Holmes, Books , and Johns you'll carry him. Parker and I will cover."

They moved in formation, Walker at twelve moving forward, Johns and Parker moving sideways at nine and three with Books walking backwards at their six, their backs inward, their eyes up scanning and on alert. They put their night vision goggles on, couldn't risk making themselves a target but carrying a flashlight.

Johns spoke up. "We're on our way, Holmes."

That's when it occurred to her.

That Riley was what she saw fall from the sky after the explosion. He was the target of multiple RPGs. He was most likely dead, or at the very least paralized.

Was it possible he survived that fall? Surely his wings could've taken more impact and he could be unconscious. He had fallen fast, but they didn't necessarily guarantee his death, right?

Then again they hadn't heard from him since. But he could've very easily gotten the wind knocked out of him. Or his comms broke on impact.

She tried desperately to will away the thought that crossed her mind that she was already in the denial stage of grieving. How could she be grieving? Riley could still be alive. She shook all thoughts away, and focused on scanning and walking sideways. Steading her breathing, her riffle up and sweeping the landscape as she scanned.

"Holmes."

Charlie almost jumped out of her skin when Walker called out. She hadn't realized they were closing in on his last known location marked on the GPS.

"Steady." The team came to a stop. "Keep cover, I'm gonna check on him." Charlie couldn't force herself to look over her shoulder, to see Riley. She didn't want to see his body possibly mangled, she also didn't want to confirm her worst fears. But then Walker spoke quietly, "Damnit. God damnit."

And that's when Charlie knew.

Riley was dead.

And she couldn't break down because they were in enemy territory, easily sitting ducks, a bigger target every second they stayed standing. Walker moved to take Books' position as he and Johns moved to pick their teammate off the ground and carry him back to the humvee. Charlie's heart rose to her throat, her back still to all of them, but she could sense the grief radiating off of the other three who tried to keep composure.

Walker switched his comms to a different station and whispered as they began their return to the humvee. "Sargent, it's Holmes. He was hit. No pulse." His tone was clipped and she couldn't hear what the Sargent's reply was but she imagined it involved a loud curse.

They moved steadily to the humvee. Quietly except for their boots scraping up the dirt and their heavy breaths. A heavy weight settling on all of them.

Once they reached the humvee, Charlie quickly opened the back door to it. Jumped in and started removing the emergency blankets from their packs, spreading one on the floor of the vehicle. Moving to help Johns and Books get him in carefully, but grunting at the shifting weight and small moved to the driver's seat and Johns moved up front as well, leaving Books and Charlie in the back with Riley.

He was bruised, his right leg bent at an awful angle. Aside from that and the lack of rise and fall of his chest, he still looked like Riley.

Charlie was waiting for him to open his eyes and pop up, gotcha suckers! Surely this was a God awful prank.

Books cleared his throat and Charlie looked up at him. The humvee was already making its way back to base and she hadn't realized the tears started rolling down her cheeks. Books' eyes flooding too.

"Oh. I thought we should probably…" She cut herself off as she held up the second blanket and books nodded. Taking the other end, they spread it on top of Riley. A broken noise came from Charlie as she covered his face.

She saw Books' do the sign of the cross and she made every effort to look at the ceiling of the vehicle the rest of the ride.

* * *

Slowly, Charlie got out of the humvee, trying her damndest not to stare at the blanket covering Riley… well now Riley's body. If she didn't look for too long, she could pretend it wasn't real. Adjusting her gear and moving out of the way for the base doctor and medical team to step in, out of the corner of her eye she saw a flash of movement.

"Sam." It came out quieter than she meant but between the bile and tears she had swallowed down the entire ride back to base, her voice wasn't ready to be used. She was hoping to get his attention but Sam was on a mission, walking at a clipped pace, his face void of any emotion. His eyes were lasered in on Marco and that was when she rushed to catch up to him. "Sam!"

She could hear the boots of Walker, Books, and Johns following closely behind her. The air so tense, it felt like everything was about to explode.

And it was.

As soon as Sam made it to wear Miller and Marco were standing, looking at the computer screens almost oblivious of the rest of the team's return and the tragedy that had ensued just minutes ago.

Charlie wasn't sure Marco even had a chance to turn his head before Sam's fist collided with his cheek so hard, he was immediately splayed out on the ground. But that didn't keep Sam from continuing his hits. Charlie was right behind Sam but she knew reaching out to try and stop him wasn't a good idea, not with the haze of rage that had washed over him. Not that she really wanted to stop him, in all honesty, she was pretty sure they all wanted to take their turn.

Sam was landing hit after hit, Marco had no way to defend himself if he could even think about it, his brain surely rattled from the first sucker punch.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?"

The sergeant's arrival with the slam of the door and yell of indignation and confusion wasn't even enough to stop him.

In fact, it was Miller's next move that caused Sam to freeze mid-punch and the team to pull their pistols out of their holsters in haste, all the four with no hesitation taking aim at Miller.

"I'd quit now if I were you." Miller's voice was deadly low, the muzzle of his own firearm pushed against Sam's temple. Charlie's heartbeat was in her ears as she tried to calm the panic that rose, suddenly feeling like she was back in the air falling. She tried to make all the calculations if she could shoot Miller without him pulling the trigger on Sam.

"Miller, stand down!" Sergeant Harkins commanded as he moved around Miller to Charlie's right, moving out of the sights of the guns, and so he could see the entire situation. His round face red with fury.

"I don't take orders from you." Charlie shifted her eyes to take in the expression on Harkins face. She wasn't surprised to see the stunned and befuddled look, clearly he hadn't put it together that he was Hydra.

From her right flank she heard Johns mutter, "Fucking knew it."

On the ground, Marco started to laugh. The image haunting as he gurgled on the blood coming from his mouth as he did so. "It was supposed to be you." Charlie swallowed hard at the confession that came out, no remorse. "You all just won't die when you're supposed to. Fucking infuriating." Her blood froze. It was like being in the room with the real life Joker. "You just had to go and save the bitch and then you grab the wrong fucking wings?"

Sam started working his jaw, mindful of the gun at his head, he knew any reaction he gave could be lethal for himself.

"Stand. The fuck. Down. Now." Harkins was seething more and more with every word that left his mouth but Charlie would be damned if she put her gun down before the one pressed against Sam.

Marco chuckled again. "Hail Hydra."

Not much conscious thinking happened in the next few seconds, just reflexes as Miller shifted his gun and shot Marco in the head. Acting on instinct, Charlie immediately took the shot at Miller, dropping him. She hadn't even realized Johns, Books, and Walker also took the shoot, she never processed the sound coming from their guns.

"God damnit!"

All Charlie could do was focus on Sam who had now had Marco's blood on his face, splatter from the shot from Miller's gun.

Walker moved around the others, checking the pulse of Miller and Marco. Shaking his head, "Nothing."

Sam moved from where he had still been crouching over Marco and went to sit down, leaning against the lockers bolted to the wall. Staring at the floor but his thoughts were miles away. Everyone else was just frozen. Staring at the two bodies laying on the ground, pools of blood starting to seep out from under them.

The team had swindled from eight to five in less than an hour, two confirmed Hydra operatives and one confirmed to be an accident? What were they supposed to do with the information overload that had just been handed to them?

Clearing his throat, Sergeant Harkins spoke up. "Get yourselves cleaned up. Colonel Rhodey will be here in the next half hour. Your mission is done. You'll go back to D.C. to debrief."

Charlie nearly collapsed to her knees trying to process everything they were just told. She still hadn't gotten around to wrapping her head around Riley dying and now not only were they processing their theory being right, but they were going home? They were just done? They were just supposed to go back stateside this soon? Like everything was normal?

Walker moved first towards the dorms, being the most collected of the team. Then Johns and Books moved, glancing at Charlie who glanced at Sam. Looking back at Johns and Books, she nodded for the two of them to follow, quietly she spoke up, "I'll grab my bag and get Sam's and Riley's too." Swallowing hard, they all had a physical reaction to his name. Tipping her chin in his direction, "Maybe one of you could at least get him to wash the blood off his face?" With a sigh she continued, "He probably shouldn't be left alone."

Nodding, Johns turned to Books, "I'll get our things." Turning back to Charlie, he led them to the door, she couldn't help but give one last look at Sam. His expressionless face was enough to break her heart.

Once she stepped over the threshold, she forced herself to focus on the task and tried her absolute best to turn her emotions off for at least the next five to ten minutes. Just enough time for her to get a sharp focus on the task of packing up bags and getting out of here. She suspected it should be a quick job, they had all assumed they'd only be on base for a few more days after the final mission and had begun the packing process. They knew weeks ago that after their last mission and debrief they were told their tours of duty would be done and they would get extended leave. There had been an excitement and a relief just earlier today, that they would be part of civilian life in a matter of hours, days at the most.

But now that just felt like an extremely jarring transition.

She threw her possessions in the bag on her bed without any real care. Nothing was breakable and she didn't bother with toiletries. Just a few clothing items, books, and a couple pictures and she was good to go. It was Sam's and Riley's room that she really had to make the conscious effort to not think about what she was doing. Both of them had about the same amount of items that she had but the photo of the three of them taped on Riley's wall was something she quickly took down to fight her emotions but was careful not to rip it, she tucked that into the Captain America book in her bag, knowing the hard cover would keep it from bending.

Under any other circumstances, it was probably comical how she looked busting out of their dorm, swamped with three duffles, a woman on a mission. Johns and Walker were making their way out of their dorms too, Johns came up to Charlie's side and grabbed one of the bags from her.

"I grabbed all the snacks from the kitchen. We haven't eaten for hours and it's a long flight." Walker practically whispered and Charlie was grateful that someone was thinking logically and strategically still. It wasn't likely any of them would be able to stomach eating on the flight but it was nice to know they had the option.

Pushing through the door out to the hangar, she was started by the large c-130 hercules plane standing by on the tarmac. In her attempts to focus, she never heard the large aircraft come in.

Sargent Harkins met them at the end of the hangar. "Johns. Walker. Parker. Your service was greatly appreciated. I'm proud you all were on my team and I wish this was under better circumstances." He paused with a heavy sigh. "God speed."

The trio muttered a thank you, Sir and moved silently towards the large plane that would be taking them home. Charlie tried hard not to look at the pools of blood on the ground. They made their way to the ramp leading into the plane and made the ascent up the slight incline.

She couldn't help but stop in her tracks. It was the first time she'd seen a flag draped coffin on a flight she'd be on. She'd seen them put on planes from afar, she'd seen them come off other planes between tours. She'd never seen one up close. And especially not one that held one the body of one of her best friends.

Shaking herself out of it as one of the pilots for the plane took her bag from her to secure it in the back and she moved to the left side of the plane where Sam sat stoically. He was already strapped in but he sat ramrod stiff in his backless seat, she wondered if he had gotten there on his own or if Books had to actually carry him here as he seems to be in a comatose state of shock.

She moved to his left and sat down in the seat next to him, so close their knees touching. With seats lining both sides of the aircraft and just a handful of people on the flight, she could've sat a few seats over, but she felt this desperate need to comfort Sam, even if that just meant their knees touched. He would know she was there for him.

Strapping herself into her seat, Charlie tried not to fidget with her hands or the straps, forcing herself not to shake her foot or bounce her legs. She watched Books, Walker, and Johns sit down opposite her, a couple seats between each of them to stretch out as much as possible. At the very least, they were all able to stretch their legs out in front of them, which was better than sitting with their knees up to their chins for hours. Colonel Rhodes boarded last.

"We'll land in D.C. in the afternoon. They've set up rooms for you all at the hotel across from the Pentagon." Rhodes spoke with authority but somberly. "You'll stay there until the debrief is over which shouldn't take more than a couple days. The debrief will start after dinner, give you time to unwind a bit and get your ops notes together."

Nodding in acknowledgement, Rhodes moved closer up to the cockpit to sit. He ended up sitting next to the coffin and Charlie wondered if he felt he had to since he was the highest ranking member on the plane and therefore, Riley was his responsibility.

Hearing the tell tale signs of the plane preparing for takeoff, Charlie took a deep breath. Even though she was a pilot, it was a much different feeling being a passenger and it wasn't one she loved. Takeoff was always the worst, she thought her time in the Air Force would've fixed the slight anxiety she felt in the pit of her stomach, but no such luck.

Closing her eyes, she focused on her breathing. And without much thought, reached for Sam's hand. The one rested on his knee closest to her and she squeezed.

She felt relief and her eyes flooded with tears when she felt him squeeze her hand back like a lifeline.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't wait for y'all's thoughts on this one. I put off writing Riley's death for so long when writing this chapter and honestly thought about not doing it but it just feels too pivotal to moving Sam's storyline forward based on what he says in Captain America: The Winter Solider that I just couldn't change it. But now that we're getting beyond the Air Force timeline, we're getting closer to more fun Charlie and Sam scenes! :) Thanks for reading, leaving reviews, following, and favoriting. Getting those notifications really make my day!


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